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My "How to solo quests with lousy equipment" Journal

A while ago, I wrote a Journal of a soloing Drow Wizard and a number of people have told me that it was helpful. I parked that toon and started a number of new ones. I decided to write a Crafting guide along the lines of my Make Money Fast! (in U9 DDO) guide and decided to start a new journal as well. This guy has lousy equipment and below is how I solo my way through quests.

Background

Feel free to skip this post if you don't care about backgroundWith the advent of crafting, I think it is possible to play a toon using only items the toon found or earned the right to purchase. I created a new toon Gunthep and here are my rules for him:
* Untwinked
* Solo only
* No guild benefits beyond being able to equip items with a guild slot
* No hirelings unless needed to throw a lever and then only to throw the lever
* Most quests done at level
* All quests must earn favor (so only once at each difficulty level)

Enhancements - I am undecided at this time and will probably reset frequently to try different things.

Play style - early on, he will be S&B. Either at level 7 or level 9, he will switch to dual-wielding Khopeshs. He will summon Defenders through the end of level 8 and I am not sure what he will do beyond that. No zerging and no kiting. He will pull out a bow when it is advantageous to do so, but always put it away when mobs close in on him.

Why This Build?Well, one way to answer this is to list the builds I have leveled up significantly list why I stopped playing them

Axesinger (leveled to 7) - He struggled soloing stuff at level 7, which could be because I wasn't very good at DDO then. The build wasn't delivering interesting features quick enough. For example, he would have learned Heroism at level 9. Instead, at level 4 I could have used a Robe of Heroism. The build didn't offer much in the way of tactical choices - he would just swing at things until everything was dead

Drow W18/R2 (leveled to 11) - A reboot of her was when I started soloing full-time. She used an army of a summons, a Skeletal Knight and a WF hireling to do most of her killing while she tried to sneak safely in the back. Starting at level 9, in some quests the mobs could see invisible and would smack her around badly. Having the army kill things while she watched made for slow gameplay and by level 11, each quest was taking ~2 hours to run. I have a tough time finding a block of time that big to commit to one quest

19 Ranger/1 Rogue Elf AA (leveled to 7) - This is the first build where I started playing solo-only and self-found. I knew so many ways of making money that if I didn't go self-found, she would have been effectively twinked by level 4 or 5. She was a pretty fun build for a while. Then I got to level 7, got AA and said, "Is this all there is to an AA?" She was great when Manyshot was up, but not that good when it was down.

Stunner AA (leveled to 8) - This was the first monk build and I really enjoyed it. Lots of tactical options during battles. I really loved the self-healing from Healing Curse and Healing Ki. At level 9, I was going to pick up my 4th Ranger level and go Arcane Archer, but I was rarely using my bow and certainly not enough to justify the eventual 6 levels of Ranger and most of the feats in the build. Also, I was feeling like starting a U9 Make Money Fast guide and with the crafting in U9, going almost completely self-found

Divine Phoenix (leveled to 6) - This was my first Paladin build and I really enjoyed it. Lots of tactical options. Lots of HP (131 at level 6). The self-healing was phenomenal. For the most part, I didn't have any problems with going almost completely self-found. My plan for leveling up was 1 Rogue, 4 Paladin, 3 Monk, 1 Rogue, 11 Paladin. Paladin and Monk don't provide a lot of skill points and combined with an INT of 12 and self-found equipment she was starting to have troubles finding stuff and it was only going to get worse. The Monk restrictions were getting to be a hassle - change to a bow and she was uncentered, equip a Heavy Mace to cast Superior Ardor and she was uncentered. There weren't many times that I wanted to use a bow, but when I did want to use it, she was pretty weak with it. Because I was wanting to use Monk weapons in combat though I had primarily Paladin levels, I was having the problem that Monk weapons were rarely showing up in the Quest Reward lists. +2 Handwraps weren't going to cut it when fighting trolls. With the self-healing I was getting from the Paladin abilities, I decided it wasn't worth the hassle of dealing with the Monk restrictions. Also, I wanted to write a guide on Crafting which would need a new toon.

So why this buid?:
* Great self-healing (though not as good as a Divine Phoenix)
* Max ranks in UMD, Search and Disable Device
* Enough bow feats (Bow Strength, Rapidshot) to be effective from range when needed
* Lots of tactical options while fighting
* Can use lots of different weapons, though Khopeshs are the plan for when my crafting is high enough
* With a high Charisma, should be very effective using UMD
* A Rogue splash to disable traps, unlock things for chest and evasion. This toon can't afford to bypass chests!

Edit 6/2/11: swapped the classes in levels 7 and 8
Edit 8/25/11: swapped the classes in level 11 and 12 and corrected feats taken
Edit 12/20/11: added GTWF as the level 15 feat

Adventure Packs

Here are my thoughts on the adventure packs I own. I don't own them all, so it isn't a comprehensive list:CatacombsAbsolutely vital for a self-found toon. This is the only reliable source that I know of for many levels for a ghost touched weapon (for Wraiths and Spectres) and a Pure Good weapon (for Ghostly Skeletons in Delera's). Also, I love the Eternal Wand of Cure Minor Wounds. When I have one, I always tank up my hp's after every fight. The Robe of Duality is wonderful for an arcane. I have never taken the +2 Holy Light Crossbow, but it is also an excellent choice. The last boss wraith is a tough one at level because I normally don't have a ghost touch weapon.

The Sharn SyndicateAbsolutely vital for a self-found toon. These level 4 quests provide fantastic loot for their level. The weapons from "Come Out and Slay" and for finishing all the quests once are going to be this toon's primary weapons for quite some time. The BtA loot for other quests can also be useful for quite some time.

Tangleroot GorgeReally nice for the money to be made from the collectables. There are no quest rewards, only quest chain rewards, which means my toon has to wait 4 levels from when he starts this chain to get a reward. However, the quest chain rewards contains some fantastic stuff for a self-found toon.

Advice on combat

Here are is some advice on how a solo melee should fight in DDO:
* When you are fighting a group of melees, don't allow yourself to be surrounded. A good tactic is to take a few swings and then step back to keep all the melees in front of you
* When there is a caster, run or jump past the melees and take the caster out first. Then turn and fight the melees
* Ignore the ranged mobs. They don't attack very often and rarely do damage
* When you are fighting a group that includes something that will knock you down such as a wolf or worg, either kill all of the knockerdowners first or all of the non-knockerdowners first, which ever is the fewest. So if you are fighting 4 worgs and a hobgoblin, kill the hobgoblin first so he can't get any free whacks in while you are knocked down. If you are fighting 4 hobgoblins and a worg, kill the worg first so he won't knock you down
* Kill the weak stuff first. If you are fighing a group of kobolds, kill the Kobolds first and then the Kobold Warriors and Kobld Chieftains. If you are fighting a boss and a bunch of minions, kill the minions first while not allowing the boss to flank you. Killing the weak stuff first reduces the number of mobs swinging at you the quickest and the fewer swing at you, the less damage you are going to take
* Be able to do ranged damage, be it with a bow, a crossbow, a clickie or a wand. There are some times when you can get some free damage in if you can do ranged damage and there are other times when you have to do ranged damage
* A summons makes a huge difference, particularly if it is big enough to pull aggro. Fighting 4 mobs while 4 whack on your summons is a lot easier battle than fighting 8 mobs

Level 1

I took my first level as a Rogue and took Self-Sufficient and Toughness as my feats.

Korthos has some fantastic gear that I will be wearing for a while. I ran the following quests:
The Storehouse's Secret - Rugged Belt
The Cannith Crystal - Spear Bane
Heyton's Rest

I spent my first 2 AP's on the Iron Companion enhancement. Defenders will be a huge asset to me up to level 7-9.

The Collaborator - In the bar, I hang out in the faux doorway to the East of the bar as the mobs attack me one at a time through it. A major concern early on is Thieves' Tools and Gunthep found 100 of them in chests in this quest. Even with that many Thieves' Tools, I am not going to use them to disarm traps.

Redemption - I didn't use the Iron Defender on this quest as his grease makes Heyton and Amalgam fall down and then they are easy targets for the Sahuagin. I took the Feather Cloak as the quest reward.

Necromancer's Doom - I got the item I wanted from the chest - Runic Gloves (+1 UMD). I took Goggles of Insight.

Level 2

The Cannith Crystal HARD - Spear Bane is great, but the Bracers of Assistance are almost as good.

Sacrifices - I scored a Heavy Steel Shield and a +1 Scalemail this quest, upping my AC from 17 to 20. I took Anger's Step.

Misery's Peak - When you enter the chamber where the dragon is below the ice floor, there is a stairway to the left leading to the Signal Crystal without the shrine. Throwing that one first and resting after throwing the other one is the best way through that stretch. When you get to the next set of shrines, use them immediately as you have two battles immediately after you pop the door and then you are pretty much done. On a quest like this with no traps or secret doors, I use my Human Versatility on Damage Boosts. I took Anger's Gift. I prefer the Anger set over the Protector set for the +2 To Hit bonus and over the Pathfinder set because of the Expeditious Retreat on the boots.

Speaking of Expeditious Retreat, once I get over 25 killed in a wilderness area, I just cast Expeditious Retreat and run directly to the quest entrance. Not much xp fighting my way there.

Sacrifices HARD - Troubleshooter's Goggles. These are really helpful and free an inventory slot by combining Search+3 with Spot+3.

Off to Stormreach. Sold trash, bought a quiver and then ran:Bringing the Light - When I get to the last room, I don't smash the gambling tables after defeating the guards. Instead, I click on a rune, grab the two collectables, defeat Ramasay Morcort and his goons, then I smash the gambling tables.

Arachnophobia - To get one of the collectables, you need a Jump potion or spell. I forgot to check to see if I had one before starting the quest and I didn't

Information Is Key - I try to avoid oozes at this point. I almost always can kill the two oozes in this quest with my bow before they get close enough to attack me.

The Miller's Debt - I sprint through this quest, hugging the left wall. There are no smashables and the Iron Defenders appear to spawn when you pass a certain point on the map.

The Kobolds' New Ringleader - Lots of smashables to smash, which is good for me as I found a lot of useful potions including my first potion of Resist Fire.

Stealthy Repossession - A challenge even with a Dex of 15 and a Hide/Move Silently of 4. I should have checked the Skills tab on my character sheet. I had swapped to light armor, but I didn't realize that my shield was -2 to Hide and Move Silently.

Protect Baudry's Interests - I spent a lot of the 5 minutes in this quest racing around to smash smashables so I would get the Ransack bonus.

Stop Hazadill's Shipment - One of the easiest quests in the game. I always feel foolish smashing crates well after the quest is completed.

Retrieve the Stolen Goods - This quest has a lot of good named items in it that can be equipped or sold for good money on the AH. The one named item I found were Boots of the Long Step.

Level 3

Second level of Paladin with Augment Summoning as my feat choice.

Crafted my first item - a Longsword of Lesser Vermin Bane, which does 1-6 against spiders and scorpions.

Redfang the Unruled - This is an odd quest in that it has more traps than I have skill buffs. I miscounted the number of skill buffs I needed and I didn't save one for the secret door just before Redfang hiding Vyragon and I couldn't find the door without it. I eventually chugged my one potion of Fox's Cunning in order to find it. Two chests and a collectables was worth it. The Longsword of Lesser Vermin Bane was really sweet for this quest.

An Explosive Situation - A really easy quest that I typically do at level 2. I had taken 1 point of damage before the final boss battle.

The Friar's Niece - An easy quest with a lot of loot (2 chest and 2 collectables) for its short length. This quest has probably the best story and atmosphere of any quest I have played. Again, the Longsword of Lesser Vermin Bane was really sweet.

The Old Archives - another quest with an excellent atmosphere. This is the third quest in a room with a fair number of bats and I am so sick of them.

The Crypt of Gerard Dryden - The most boring, unimaginative quest I have played. I tend to get a "Let's get this thing over with" attitude by the end, which was almost lethal in this case. When I used my Bracers of Assistance after shrining, I forgot to re-equip my Spear Bane. I took a lot more damage than I should have in the final battle, had to flee the final room to heal. Also, I hadn't recently repaired my equipment and my Skelly basher (a +1 Shocking Touch Warhammer) was seriously worn before I started the final battle, so I was swinging a +1 Shocking Touch Longsword instead. I went down to 4 hp with a Dryden Ancestor on my heels. I drank some Starter Cure Light Wounds potions, dispatched the Dryden Ancestor, drank some more pots, went back to the final room and finished the battle.

I am going to break from the Catacombs because (1) I will be more alert when I go back to them and (2) the amount of loot drops in the next few Catacomb quests are poor.

Where There's Smoke... - I like the story behind this quest and the optional rescuing of the dogs is a really nice touch. I rescue the dogs after the big battle at the farm house as (1) they don't seem to be willing to go there, (2) you wouldn't want them to go there and die in the fight and (3) I don't want to have to find them on the way out. During the battle at the farm house, I run around behind the buildings, picking off Orcs as they show themselves and I try to wait until there are only 4-5 left before charging the boss.

I crafted a Handwraps of Lesser Ooze Bane and added Fire Touch to my Longsword of Vermin Bane.

"First Strike" and "The Hobgolins' Captives" - As most of the Tangleroot Gorge use the same map, the following advice applies to most of them:
* You have to hike across the wilderness area Ungorz on the far side of the gorge. If you are level 3, don't bother exploring as you probably aren't up to tackling most of the bosses. Once you get to Ungorz, hit the two nearby collectables and then recall. Heal up in the tavern and then talk to Emeric Quall again and you will get instantly teleported to Ungorz
* In "First Strike", don't stop when you slay 20 Hobgoblin Guards. Keep exploring until you get all 5 chests and all 9 collectables
* In the Eastern room with a pit, take the ladder down until you hear the Night Scorpions wake up, then climb back up the ladder. Pull out a bow and severely weaken them before going down. The Night Scorpions are far deadlier than anything else in this quest
* In "The Hobgoblins' Captives", don't talk to the last prisoner until you have explored the whole dungeon, getting the 5 chests and the 9 collectables

I crafted a Full Plate Mail of Invulnerability. So right now I have great AC and great DR. I had some trouble disabling traps in "Tangleroot Gorge", so I decide to go back to Korthos:
Necromancer's Doom HARD - Ornate Goggles
The Cannith Crystal ELITE - Bracers of Assistance

The first time I tried this almost-completely-self-found approach to DDO, I thought that there was no way that I would be able to do Waterworks with the few Potions of Fire Resist that I had found. Turns out, Waterworks isn't that tough without Fire Resist. It helps to have a lot of HP (including some temporary ones from Aid). One important tactic is when conforted by a group of Kobolds, to charge past the melees and kill the Throwers and Shamans as quickly as possible.The Kobold's Den: Clan Gnashtooth - here is how I do the quest - go right at the first intersection, kill everything down that hallway while getting the key, come back and open the room with the locked door, get that key and open Chief Eechik's room, clear that out, throw the switch, go left at the T leaving Chief Eechik's room, clear out the hallway down to the door, shrine, open the door, run to the back of the water and pillars room, kill everyone there, disarm the trap, climb the ladder, kill everyone up there, clean out the room, throw the switch, go through the now open door, go right at the T and kill all of the kobolds, go back to the spider area and kill all the spiders (I can retreat to the quest exit if things go badly), go back to the end of the quest and move on to the next one.

The Kobold's Den: Rescuing Arlos - I don't know if you need to do the Eastern section, but I always do. When I get to the big room to the far East, I don't go in. Instead, I pull out my bow, shoot some kobolds and then run back around the corner. I kill the kobolds that follow me there to thin the herd, then I charge into the room to kill the rest. When I leave there, I go South to the secret prison, shrine up there, go back to the place with the drawbridges, swim down to the undead section, kill them all and swim back. If I have taken a lot of damage, I can go back to the Northern Shrine. I then drop the drawbridge to the South and kill all of the kobolds in the prison starting there. Once all the kobolds are dead, I make a test run towards the exit to make sure the path is clear for Arlos. I then go back, get Arlos and exit the quest.

The Captives - A good ranged weapon is a big boon for this quest. Or you could use a Feather Fall item to jump off the bridge and ignore the mobs on the way down to the water (I don't). An interesting aspect to this quest is that there is one collectable off to the side of the map just before you get to the main camp that you when you go there, mobs spring up before and after you get the collectable. Don't wait too long on the shrine - some mobs will suddenly appear when you try to go into the tent to use it. The final boss is pretty tough. The three casters that you rescue must be pathetic as they don't seem to have much of an effect on the final boss.

Setting the Wards: The Lower Cathedral - A pretty straightforward quest. Don't wait to shrine until after you warded all three altars as the final battle is between the altars and the shrine.

Setting the Wards: The Patriarchs' Crypt - Just when I am thinking, "Man, this is exactly the same as the last quest", Boom! A surprise twist to the quest. You have to have haste or Exp Retreat for this quest or you will die. Before you ward the last sarcophagus, figure out where the small gate out is. Once you have warded it, run like the wind through that gate, throw the two switches (come at an angle and don't worry about the trap) and throw the lever to open the gate. If Marguerite catches up to you while you are running towards the exit, she will always interrupt you while you are try to throw the last lever. Consequently, she is going to kill you and all you can do is drag it out.

Level 4

First level of Ranger with Favored Enemy: Undead as my feat choice.

Stand Your Ground - You can buff and heal Rance and Maxwell. I used my Bracers of Assistance to cat Aid on both of them.

Dirty Laundry - A straight forward quest, though I don't understand why they have two mutually exclusive endings. I never need the shrine. There is a room with a massive spike trap that it is more dangerous to try to disarm then it is to ignore the trap and leave the room.

The Stormreaver Fresco - I find this a boring quest to solo as it takes so long to destroy the crystals. When in the lobby, I sneaked to the two switches and threw them without the guards noticing me, then I popped the chest. On other tries, I have cast Exp Retreat and sprinted to the switches.

The Bookbinder Rescue - My understanding is that this is a frustratingly hard quest without rogue skills because the Binders will blunder into the traps and kill themselves. With rogue skills, I have to be patient to be sure that I have all of the traps disarmed in an area before popping any doors.

Repossession - Unlike "The Bookbinder Rescue", this quest is designed for the traps to be circumvented by non-rogues. It is far easier and faster to just to disarm all the traps and then grab all the treasures.

Come Out and Slay - I really like this quest with the lots of good fights and the fighting on the roofs. You really need to be able to do ranged damage on this quest so you can pick off all the fighters in the final area from the roof rather than jumping down and getting mobbed.

Venn's Trail: Clan Tunnelworm - This quest has several interesting battles. It starts with an oozefest that doesn't end until you reach the first door. Open the door and it is a flamefest. I used to shoot the Kobold Throwers and Shaman from the ledge next to the door, but I have decided it is better to just charge around the ledge until I reach them, but I need to be fast. I take the North tunnel from there. After I clean out the first room, there is a switch down in the water that operates some gates to a locked area to the North. Unfortunately, another player is needed to operate the switch, so I miss out. Instead, I sprint through the acid traps, hit the switches on the far side, turn the valves to stop the acid as I walk South, fight through the oozes that spawned back in the room with water, and then go back to the central room. Going through the East tunnel is optional, but I always do it. Then through the South tunnel, where I spring across the room and up the ramp to kill the throwers and shaman on it. Once everything is dead in the room, I jump over to the collectable. Then down the hallway, kill everything, throw the switches and shrine up. Back to the hole in the main room. The voiceover implies that falling straight down is dangerous, but I find that whacking into the obstructions is where you take damage. I always Feather Fall down the hole and into the fire fest. Again, the key here is to quickly fight to the throwers and shamans and kill them. If you fight too slowly, they will respawn. Throwing the lever to open the exit door allows oozes to come in. Things are easier from there. I go through the secret door to kill everything there and pop the chest. Shrine up if I need and then through the North door. One last fight and I am done.

Venn's Trail: Venn's Fate - This quest is so disappointing after the first three. Most of the fights are in the "Some mobs standing in the hallway" category. No interesting battles. Lots of wandering around, looking into empty cells. I always twist the valves opening the cells until I find Venn because otherwise I lose track of where I have searched. I don't examine Venn until I finished searching the whole level.

Whisperdoom's Spawn - Only the confortation with Whisperdoom is really different from the other Splinterskull quests. I cast Exp Retreat before going in and just focus on the egg sacs. I may kill the other spider if it gets in the way and I always grab the collectable. I want to smash the 20 egg sacs as fast as I can and then get out.

The Depths of Despair - The Depth quests are pretty funky. All of them involving running around sewers, fighting a wide variety of mobs. If DDO were to have quests designed by a random dungeon generator, this is what I think they would look like. These aren't very difficult quests. However, they work as an interesting change of pace for just 4 quests. You could speed through this quest by heading West and then South, but I always wander through the whole thing, grabbing all the collectables and killing all the mobs.

The Depths of Darkness - When I go in, I go right, find the secret door, go through it, turn the corner, go up and grab the collectable, retrace my steps back to the entrance and then go East. This saves me the effort of disarming one trap. The shrine appears too early in this quest and I never use it when I first come across it. After I clear out the first loop, I head North, kill the necromancer, pop his chest, kill the undead, go West and take the South fork, kill the minotaur and get the collectable, go back to the chest and then go East and take the North fork to grab the collectable there, then take the South fork to fight the oozes. From there, I wander over to where the path hits a wall, where I backtrack once again to the chest to avoid a trap. If I am going to shrine, now is when I do it. Then West and take the North fork and fight around to the final room.

Rest for the Restless - This quest requires a hireling to solo. There are some Skeleton Archers on a ledge that you have to kill to move on, so you need to be able to do ranged damage. If there is any place where you think, "Hmm, this looks like a ambush", it is. Towards the end (past the fire trap), the hallway ends in a T. The automap is frustrating here because there is a passage to the East that is above you that you can easily waste time to trying to find now. I kill all of the skeletons here, grab the collectable, head right, kill the Arcane Skeletons on the ramp, keep going around the loop until I back at the T so I can kill all of those mobs. I then go back up the ramp, go into the room at the top of the ramp just long enough to pull aggro and then I retreat back to one of the ramps to kill all of the skeletons that followed me there. In the room, there should be 2 Skeleton Archers and 2 Arcane Skeletons. I run back in, jump across the gap, kill the Arcane Skeletons, jump back to kill the Skeleton Archers, jump across again, wander down the pointless eastern passage to get the collectable and find the exit.

I haven't mentioned my equipment in a while as I don't have much. No helm and no trinket. From Korthos, I have the Anger's Gift necklace, the Anger's Step boots, the Goggles of Insight, Troubleshooter's Goggles, the Rugged Belt, the Feather Cloak and 2 Bracers of Assistance. I have found a Necklace of Haggling +3, Goggles of Minute Seeing +5, a Charismatic +2 Cloak, Lesser Lightning Guard Robe, Bracers of Divine Favor, Bracers of Sustenance +3, Dexterous +1 Ring of Escape +3, Gloves of Disable Device +3, Boots of Silence +3, a Nicked Longsword, a +1 Flaming Longbow. I have crafted a Full Plate of Invulnerability, a Ring of Light Fortification, a Heavy Mace of Lesser Undead Band and +1 Shocking Touch Handwraps of Lesser Ooze Bane.

Endgame: Marguerite - This is a gauntlet of waves of undead. Command Undead has limited use as you have to kill every member of a wave before the next wave will spawn. It is good to be able to do ranged damage on this quest as there are two Skeleton Archers on ledges that are very difficult to reach by jumping and you have to kill them to move on. You will hear the Arcane Skeleton quite a bit before he actually shows up. When you hear him showing up, go to the stairs and wait for him to show as he will do much more damage to you than any other mob.

Time to get 75 Coin Lord favor:Missing in Action - Some oozes to start, I go left at the T and immediately to my left is an alcove with a switch. Throw that. Go kill the kobolds and search for hidden doors and switch. I throw one switch, leaving the switch on the far side (near the shrine) unthrown. I go towards the shrine, kill the zombies, go close to the crystal switch (which causes some kobolds to spawn in the hallway), go back to the hallway, kill the kobolds, throw the crystal switch, kill the trog shaman, then throw the last switch to turn off the traps. Go back to the original T and back in the original hallway you can see a niche with a switch in it - throw that. Repeat what I did for the other side. Back to the T to and through the open gate, where I kill the 4 Kobold Shamans then the boss Trog.

Recovering the Lost Tome - I really like the implied story in this one where the librarian placed traps and undead to protect the tome, but a lot of them can be bypassed by someone with a high INT. Don't let the Skeleton Archer at the end of the water room with lightning bolts get up on the ledge above the lever or you will need ranged damage to kill him. Near the end of the quest, there is a room that is opened with a lever that has a chest in it. You have to have an INT of 13-14 to use the rune to get to the chest.

Garrison's Missing Pack -
The biggest challenge of this quest is handling the oozes. Unlike most quests, the oozes are mixed in with the other battles, so you have to be ready to switch to your ooze gear almost instantly. Don't shrine when you get to the first shrine. Instead, find the secret door to the West of the shrine, go through it, ignore all the niches, fight your way to the end and shrine there. As you walk back, clear out the niches and throw all of the switches. Down the hallway from the first shrine is a necromancer Kobold Shaman (an odd touch). I try to take him out with a bow before the zombies wake up. There is a switch in a niche to the right of the zombies that turns off a spike trap just beyond the wet floor. Clear out the rooms with the koblods and throw the switches. If you are down healthwise, now is the time to head back to the first shrine and heal up. When you jump into the water to swim to the last section of the quest, be sure to get the last collectable. Swim through the gate, go up the hole and finish off the rest of the quest.

Kobold Assault - Another quest where I thought it would be nuts to do with Resist potions, but I can do fine without them. There are several options for where you can fight. One choice is inside of the fort off to on side of the gate. This protects you from the throwers and the shamans while you kill the melees. The problem with this spot is that a horde of throwers and shamans will build up outside the fort, waiting for you to come out. Another choice is to run to the end of the road that leads from the gate. Kobolds won't seek you out there. From there, you can sally forth, pull aggro on some kobolds, run back there, kill the kobolds you aggroed, heal up and repeat. Makes for a long, boring quest. I have been going left out of the gate and hanging out along the foothills. For whatever reason, the Iron Defender seems drawn there and it works for me. This edge of the map is where kobolds spawn. It has the down side that the bushes block my view but I don't feel like the kobolds are coming from all sides to attack me.

The Sunken Sewer - You can get through this quest very quickly by going left at the entrance, going right at the T and immediately jumping in the water. I prefer to maximize the value of the quest by going right at the entrance, disarming the first two traps, backtracking to the entrance and then going through the other side, killing everything to the T, killing the kobolds that spawn, going through the rune locked door and cleaning out that section, and shrining. Then I backtrack to the entrance, head South once again, disarm all the traps, grab all the collectables, kill all the kobolds and eventually come to the ledge overlooking the water. From there, I jump in and swim to the caged room, where I dispatch the boss Trog. I swim back out, head down the hallway South, kill the optional Trog shaman if he spawns, grab the last collectable and take the rope out. However, I don't have any way of buffing my INT and I am concerned about my supply of lockpicks, so I basically did the fast method.

Stopping the Sahuagin - A quest with little value to it beyond the favor. When you climb out of the water, search for the secret door to your right. Otherwise, those Sahuagin behind it will attack you when you are fighting the next set of mobs. For Kraak the ice spider, the best way to fight it is with a bow that does fire damage until he comes down to attack you.

Home Sweet Sewer - one of the easiest quests in the game. I just run a half circle around a dog and then run back to the entrance. Repeat until all the dogs are gone.

Irestone Inlet - I normally do this at level 5, but I am running out of Coin Lord quests to run. This quest has no colletables, but 9 to 12 chests. You really need to have a lot of free inventory slots to do this quest solo. It really hurt to not have a Fire Resist up during this quest as I took mainly fire damage. I had to drink lots of CLW potions, but that is what they are there for. The big thing to me about this quest is that you need to work towards and from the shrines. I go through the gate, wipe out the camp South of the gate, go NW from there and up a steep path to wipe out the camp high up the hill side, then back down the path and West to Dinks' camp and the first shrine. At this point, there are lots of patrols that you have to be prepared to fight at a moment's notice. From there, I had back East past the first camp I wiped out to the camp along the Eastern edge. I go South from there, visit Stained-Tusk and 'Mad' Anne Rackham, go South again to clear out the next camp, South to the ship and clear it out. I then pick up 3 barrels from the Eastern camps and put them aboard the ship. I shrine up now at the second shrine, had back to the first camp and head South to the two camps in that section. I follow that path along until I am close to Dink's camp and then head South to clean out those camps. If I need healing, I head back to Dink's camp for a second shrining. Eventually, all of the camps have been cleaned out and all of the prisoners are free. I head back to the ship and blow it up. I then find Yaaryar and dispatch him. From there, I head back to Stained-Tusk to finish the quest.

Endgame: The Archbishop's Fate - During Irestone Inlet, I found enough stuff to craft a Ghost Touch shard, so I am ready to do this quest. I have found it a really tough quest in the past because half of my hits didn't damage the boss wraith, who smacks me around pretty hard. Do all your buffing before talking to Archbishop Dryden as the fighting starts as soon as you talk to him. You have a few seconds after you talk to him before the boss wraith spawns, which you can spend whacking some Skeleton Archers. Once the boss wraith spawns, run around to the back of the dias so no other mob will attack you while you are swinging at the boss wraith. If you get too low on life, run a lap around the dias and drink pots as you go. With the Ghost Touch Heave Mace of Lesser Undead Bane, I was able to dispatch the boss wraith while losing about half my life, Laid On Hands to heal up, then killed the rest of the undead. There was so many good items in the quest reward list that I couldn't decide which to take. I am hoping to get a Flametouched weapon on another quest before I do "The Mystery of Delera's Tomb" so I don't have to take a Pure Good weapon that I will only use in Delera's.

Now, I have done all of the Coin Lords quests on Normal that I have access to except for "Proof is in the Poison", which requires a huge amount of Resist Acid to attempt. I am at 73 Coin Lord Favor and could easily do a low-level Coin Lord quest on Hard to reach 75. However, I am very close to leveling up and when I level up, I plan on running "Come Out and Slay" on Hard in the hopes of getting a acid or fire melee weapon. That will give me the 75 Coin Lord favor I need for the fourth inventory tab, which I can easily wait a little bit for. So, I am going to spend the rest of level 4 running Free Agent quests, as I really want to be able to buy +2 Thieves' Tools for the Free Agent favor vendor. "Freshen The Air" takes lots of Resist Fire and Acid to do and I don't have enough, so I will skip it for now. Instead, I do:

The Swiped Signet - this is a difficult quest to do at level. Initially, you explore a spider-infested section of the quest to throw a switch opening the door to the Quickfeet hideout. I keep my buffs for the Quickfoot hideout as it is much harder than the spider section and it is easy to heal up before entering the Quickfoot hideout. Once I enter the Quickfoot hideout, I have a couple of fights on my way to a door. Once I go through that door, it is a series of tough battles. Past the door, there is a stairway up to the left that leads to a group of warforged. They are optional and I don't know if they will stay there if I ignored them. I always charge up the stairs and they are a tough fight. When I am done with that fight, I heal up. From there, I move as quickly as I can down the ramps, across the bridges over the water, to the corner of the room behind the large pillar just before the long ramp up. There are some archers on a platform above you and I have never been able to kill them with a bow. On high levels, they will slice me up like a Thanksgiving turkey. If I am behind the pillar, those archers can't hit me. It is a good spot to fight any mobs coming down the ramp. From there, I fight as quickly as I can up the long ramp to the top of the room and then across some bridges to where the archers are located. Once everybody up there is dead, I go back and smash all the smashables and take out Darkspur if he spawns. Back up to where the archers where, throw the valve to open the door and then there is one more fight before the shrine. In the final section, there are lots of fights and the Quickfoot are constantly sneaking up on me. There is a switch next to a door in the NW that the Steel Defender is eager to go through. When you throw the switch, a big mob of Quickfeet spawn behind you. There is a rune locked door in this section that takes a WIS between 15-18 to open. The one time I had a toon with a WIS high enough to open the door, a boss mephit was behind the door that healed faster than I could damage it. I finally had to just out run it, pop the final chest and then run far enough away that I could wait out unmolested the quest completion.

Level 5

The Depths of Doom - There is an explosive barrel in a group of barrels in a niche opposite of a door. Destroying it spawns a fire elemental, so be prepared when you destroy it.

Come Out and Slay HARD - The biggest difference I see in Hard versus Normal is that there is a Syndicate Devotee among the last group. Take him out first or he will heal any mob you try to kill. You have to do ranged damage faster than he can heal himself or the last battle will be really ugly. Again, the way to handle the last group is to thin them down with ranged damage from the rooftop before jumping down to finish the job.

Archer Point Defense - You can't waste time in this quest as it is timed. Being able to cast Exp Retreat is nice as I have a lot of ground to cover in a short period of time. Once the mobs bust through the gate, I kill that group and then head North. Follow the trail, killing mobs as they pop up. When I can see the group of Ogres down in a hollow, I go to the left of the path as there are a lot of invisible mobs that will spawn there. Shooting the ogres is a great way to knock down there hp. I eventually clear out this area and pop the chest. I head back South and go South past the fort and on my right are some tall bushes. An ambush will spawn there so I charge them and kill them before they can do much damage to me. Back up to the fort entrance and then East into another hollow with mobs. After clearing that out, shrine. Back to the fort entrance and then South. Follow the path as it swings around, killing the mobs as they appear. There is one spot where a large group of mobs spawns in front and behind me after I walk past some rocks. Run along the side of the fort until I encounter the Ogre Shaman as far North as I can go. Kill him, pop his chest and head down the slope Southwest to the final battle.

The Lair of Summoning - I have the problem that when I come to the room with the chest, if I go around and disarm the trap box on the far side of the room, the Steel Defender triggers the summoning of the mephits and the sealing of the chest area with iron bars. I haven't figured out how to get to the chest when that happens. So instead, I just walk up the chest and don't disarm the trap. Probably what I should do is not summon the Steel Defender until after I disarm the trap in that room. When you get to the first room with a gate to the North, don't disarm all the traps in the room as there are one more trap that you can disarm between there and the shrine. The final boss is a Fire Elemental who is for some reason immune to cold. I had to use one of my precious potions of Resist Fire to fight him.

The Deadly Package: Agent of the Darguul - You can keep going after finishing the quest. If you release the fleshrender, there is a chest in the room it occupied. To the West and then North and then West, there is a collectable (as well as lots of mobs).

I don't want to do "The Chamber of Insanity" or "The Mystery of Delera's Tomb" until I have a +1 Ghost Touch weapon of Lesser Undead Bane crafted. "A Small Problem" I am still learning and need a big block of time for. Even more so for the rest of the "Phiarlan Carnival" adventure pack. I don't have the "Three Barrel Cove" or "Necropolis" adventures packs. So I am going to run Free Agent quests to get up to 75 Free Agent favor so I can buy +2 Thieves' Tools

Walk the Butcher's Path - A tough quest to do at level. You need to be able to handle oozes. I try to save the first shrine for several battles after I first get to it. The chest in the niche that spawns a major ambush when you pop it - I always run to the West, go around the corner and then into the niche to the East. I am shielded there from most of the shamans in the hallway near the chest. I kill everything I can there. Switch to your ooze gear before you head south of there to the shrine and West of there to continue on.

Durk's Got A Secret - I have seen numerous veterans suggest to new players struggling with money problems to farm this quest for Muckbanes, but I have only gotten a Muckbane once in the many times I have run this quest. If you are doing it at level, it can be a challenge because you want to fight the second kobold brother first in order to get a shot at Muckbane, but that means the quest is almost over before you shrine. If you are doing this quest at level, I suggest not going through the secret door to the right of the second T and not throwing the switch to open the door to the other Trog until after you shrine.

The Smuggler's Warehouse - when you are coming down the first hallway, look for a ladder to your left and go up to kill a Kobold Shaman as quick as you can. Across the room from there is another Kobold Shaman and a chest that has the key to unlock the gate. Once I open the gate, I step off the ledge to the West, pull out a bow and shot the Kobold Thrower that you are facing. It is hard to shoot him from the warehouse floor. I ignore the boxes at this point so I can go as far as possible with Aid up. Once my Aid ends, I walk back and smash crates. There are usually 11 gems in this quest. I don't take gem #9 and #10 until I have gotten Onslaught and Ransack. If I take #9, it is too easy to accidently take #10 too early.

Redfang the Unruled HARD - no big differences over Normal. I found 50 +2 Theives' Tools, which postpones the need to do Free Agent quests.

A Small Problem - A big and very confusing map with a non-obvious lay out and multiple levels. This is my second time through and the first half was a lot faster. Don't touch the glittering bag at the first giant camp. The Fire Elementals of the firewood quest did a lot of damage to me, even when I used some of my precious potions of Fire Resist. The "Seek blessing of the sky spirit" objective is really frustrating as (1) how to get there is completely unobvious and (2) it is hard to do without Feather Fall and I can only cast Feather Fall for 30 seconds. I fell once trying to jump there, took a ton of damage and had to wait a long time for the shrine to reset. I found the Hidden Valley with the last earth elemental and a collectable - go through Rock Valley and climb up until you are at a cliff, Feather Fall and then jump down. You can shrine up there and then easily jump down.

Partycrashers - A LONG quest with a ton of loot and lots of collectables. There are two things that make this quest a lot more enjoyable - a Jump of preferably at least 20 and a Bluff of at least 8. The first part of the quest is a string of interesting battles, then I hit a long stretch where the first time I did the quest, I just didn't know what I was suppose to do next. The second half is somewhat like a James Bond movie with lots of bluffing and investigating. Don't try to fight your way through the area guarded by the large dragonmark. Use you jump in the theater to take the elevated passageway there and then take the door in the lobby to the Illusionarium to return to the Chapterhouse. When you leave the Viceregal's office, a fight spawns so be ready for it. Don't talk to the guard in the private rooms unless you can successfully bluff him or otherwise you will get mobbed.

The Chamber of Insanity - A +1 Ghost Touch Light Pick of Pure Good dropped in the last quest, so I felt I could do this one with it. You have to have a +1 Ghost Touch weapon to do this quest. There are 4 corner rooms, each with a trap and a switch that summons a boss wraith. There are long hallways between the corner rooms filled with undead. I go left at the T, kill the first wraith, then go down the hallway. On the left is a necromancer and if you kill him quickly, he won't wake up the zombies. At the end of this hallway (and the other hallways) is a Wight Priest which I usually kill with a bow. Clear the next two corners, clear the last hallway, shrine, kill the last boss wraith and then retreat back the hallway to the newly opened entrance. I pull out the bow and start shooting to pull aggro and then I go around the corner to await the boss Sectre. While I was fighting him, the Arcane Skeletons came up so I ran down the hallway to get away from them. I killed the boss spectre there and then killed the rest of the last mobs.

The Snitch - My first time to do this quest. An attractive quests with lots of different environs. When you get to the room with three switches, the hole in the NE has a tunnel that leads to a shrine that you need water to get to. I threw all three switches and missed out on the chance to shrine. Rusty was easy to kill - I just stood behind the hole where he couldn't reach me and shot him full of arrows. The last battle was tough.

Under the Big Top - My first time to do this quest. Until the end, all of the battles are basically the same. However, I never knew when the battles were going to happen, so I was always on edge. I drank lots of CLW potions. The last battle had an interesting story and was really, really tough. I had to do several runs for healing. I finally figured out that the boss was immune to the elemental damage of my weapons, but not to my Pure Good weapon. I was really bummed that my top two choices for the quest chain reward weren't in the reward list.

The Mystery of Delera's Tomb - You have to have a Holy or Pure Good weapon for this quest in addition to a Ghost Touch weapon. In the last part, a hallway would be clear, I would take a few steps, gates would slam, skeletons would spawn and after I killed them all, the gates would raise exposing the next section of hallway where the cycle would repeat over and over. The battle in the last room is tough.

I had many exceptional drops at this level. I don't know what is going on. I have never gotten a Pure Good weapon to drop before and 3 or 4 dropped for this level. One of them was a Ghost Touch! I had several ML7 items drop. Back in U8, I tracked every single drop for a toon and at the best I ever got was an item to drop with the ML the same as the quest level and that didn't happen to often.

Level 6

Fourth level of Paladin with Exotic Weapon: Khopesh as my feat choice. My main weapon is a +3 Khopesh of Righteousness that I found. It is a Warforged weapon, but my UMD is so high that I equip it without buffing.

By the end of level 7, I need to use a +2 INT tome to have the skill points I want. I have been saving my money and by the end of level 5, I had 215K and was well on my way to having enough money to buy one. And then, I saw someone selling a +2 DEX tome for 200k on the trade channel. An excellent price and I need one of those by the end of level 8 if I am going to take Greater Two Weapon Fighting at level 9. So I bought it, even though I means I have to worry about cash again. I am going to be a little more aggressive about selling items that had some use for crafting. I have had my share of frustrations with crafting, so I am fine with cutting back the resources I dedicate to it.

Doom of the Witch-doctor: Zulkash, Herald of Woe - I buff, don't bother smashing anything and instead kill mobs, go right at the T, pop the gate, go down to the door, through the door, and loop around the square. I then start smashing everything working my way back to the beginning. I then go back to the T, go left and to the doors. I buff there and then clean out everything in the NW. When convenient, I pop the secret door and clear out everything behind it. I then shrine, spin the wheels, go into the final room and clean out everything there. I then go back to the river, swim down past the gate, get the collectable, hop onto a ledge across from the entrance to the island and buff up. Then it is time to swim across and clear things out there.

Caged Trolls - A fun, interesting and straightforward quest. When you go up the leader, go North and clean out everything you can there. Then go South and clear everything out as you go.

Dead Predators - A short quest. When you get to the first hallway dead end, you have to actively look into the mirror to open the secret door.

Mirra's Sleepless Nights - When you get to the first room, go right and then read the journal in the room at the end. Otherwise, the rest of the quest makes little sense. If you go into a room, expect a bunch of undead to spawn.

I breezed through all of those quests. Things got tougher though.

Ruined Halls - A very funky quests where the smashables typically spawn a mob. My guess is that if you don't smash stuff and don't do the optionals, you could run through this quest very quickly. But what is the fun in that? Barrels and vases usually spawned oozes, so put on your ooze gear and smash all of those at the same time. I used my last INT potion to get past the rune, but got two collectables and a chest for it. When you go left at the first room, there are 3 secret doors. I popped the South one first and that was a mistake. There were 2 Greater Fire Mephits who stayed back in the room over some lava that I could never get to come out. Their fire attacks badly knocked down my health (I didn't have any Resist Fire pots to spare to try to take them out. I was able to ignore them and open the West door, but I didn't bother trying the North door. The last half of the quest has a number of tough fights and the last room has some serious eye candy.

The Forgotten Caverns - The initial fight was pretty tough. After that, there was a couple of fights with Trolls and Jellies - not a good combination. Trolls are tough when soloing because their regeneration doesn't scale. I normally fight a mob group by taking a couple of swings then stepping back in order to keep the mobs in front of me. That doesn't work with Trolls as I don't hit the same mob over and over that way and they regenerate the damage I do to them as fast as I do it. Don't bother trying to pick the locked door to shrines - you have to bust it down with a least a strength of 18.

Redwillow's Ruins - I had been doing so well that I decided to attempt this even though I knew it is a balanced party quest and I died during the final battle. When you enter the quest, go right (SW) to find Redwillow. The first time I ran this quest, I went left and explored everything while not knowing what I was doing. After talking to Redwillow, don't continue SW as there are a number of tough fights there and no shrine. Instead, go North, fight your way to the shrine, shrine up, ghug the left side and fight your way up the stairs to the Goblioid Lair. There are number of gates in the Goblinoid Lair and I think every one had a trap in front of it. After you clean it out, go South, kill the Drow, shrine at their shrine, go back SW of Redwillow, kill the Trolls and clear out the Bugbear Fortress, and then head back to the Gobloined Lair to shrine. Talk to Redwillow and he opens a port for you to go through. Buff up before you go as you are mobbed by Hobgoblins and Hill Giants shortly after you get there. I found fighting the hill giants very disorienting - they constantly sent me flying and I then lost my bearings. I tried to keep them from surrounding me but they move quickly. I tried kiting but I couldn't run fast enough to open some space from them. I couldn't concentrate on just one as the others would then send me flying. I kept fighting, healing as needed until they started dropping. Once a few fell, the rest was much easier. There is a shrine to the South. I had cleaned up what I had encountered and started approaching the shrine, but I didn't know if the boss was there or to the North and the area around the shrine looked ominous, so I didn't shrine. Big mistake. I went back North and a group of 4-5 Hill Giants spawned. Another hard tough fight. I tried running around and healing, but they are too fast and kept damaging me while I ran. I don't know if I could have eventually taken that group, but in my disorientatin I accidentally ran close enough to the final boss to wake him up and I was doomed. I died shortly thereafter.

This was my third death - one while trying do "Freshen The Air" without enough Resist Fire and Acid potions, one in "The Chamber of Insanity" when I discovered the boss Spectre had a 50% DR to my Ghost Touch Warhammer of Lesser Undead Bane and this one.

The Iron Mines: Justice for Grust - A tough quest because there are no shrines. The ogres did steady damage to me and after a while, I had used up all my free healing and had to start chugging pots. There was one part where a boss Rust Monster was down a hole and at the end of a tunnel. For Rust Monsters, I usually shoot them full of arrows while they play with my defender. This one killed my defender and after I killed him, a gaggle of Rust Monsters spawned. It freaked me out to have so many off them on top of me. I killed them all and worked steadily towards the back. The final battle is kind of odd in that the final boss just sits there even though I could see him from a long ways off.

The Bounty Hunter - A tough quest. I fought down to the door. One step inside the door is a trap and that can only be disarmed from the far side, so I didn't go into the room after I opened the door and shot everything with my bow while my defender fought them. I went North from there to gain access to the shrine. Through the locked gate there and killed the Trolls. I then opened the door to the West. There are a number of rock "islands" that you have to jump over while traps our damaging you and archers are shooting at you. I slugged a Resist Cold potion, ignore the first few traps, tried charging the archers but fell into the water short of them. Swim back, up the ladder, tried again and fell even earlier. On the third try, I stopped about halfway, pulled out my bow and killed the archers from there. I then disarmed the trap there (which covered the second half of Marioland) and then jumped to the end. I cleaned out that section and then went back to shrine. The way to the upper level is pretty subtle - initially it is just some rocks between the two hallways that you just jump on until you reach a ledge that wraps around the room. A couple of traps on the ledge but no enemies. Once the ledge turns into a hallway, the fighting starts again (I was caught off guard by the change and had on my disarming armor). Fight all the way to the back. In the final room, there are three archers on a raised ledge. I couldn't figure out any way to get to them and had to kill them with my bow. Behind the chest is a pool. If you swim West just under the water, it leads you to a secret cavern with a treasure chest. There is an electrical trap there, so pop the chest while staying in the water, loot it as fast as you can and then swim back. The final battle was pretty easy after all the other fights.

Equipment update:
* From Korthos, I have the Anger's Gift necklace, the Anger's Step boots, the Goggles of Insight, Troubleshooter's Goggles, the Rugged Belt, the Feather Cloak, the Ring of Waterbreathing and 2 Bracers of Assistance.
* I have crafted a +1 Lesser Fire Guard Full Plate of Invulnerability, a Ring of Light Fortification, a Ring of Power III, a Hallowed Necklace, a Helm of Persuasion, Goggles of Hiding +3, a +2 Warhammer of Lesser Undead Band, a +1 Shocking Touch Handwraps of Lesser Ooze Bane, a Superior Ardor I Khopesh and a +2 Ghost Touch Heavy mace of Lesser Undead Bane that I currently can't use as it is ML7.
* The rest of what I usually equip is a Ruined Signet Brooch, a Charismatic +2 Cloak, Bracers of Divine Favor (3/rest), Dexterous +2 Gloves.
* The items I regularly use to buff are Gloves of Owl's Wisdom (3/rest) and a Necklace of Bull's Strength (1/rest).
* My Rogue skils items are Goggles of Minute Seeing +5, Utility Vest (DD5, OL5, Dex+2).
* My sneaking items are a Lesser Fire Guard Robe of Spearblock, the Goggles of Hiding +3 and Boots of Silence +3.
* My main weapon sets are a +3 Khopesh of Righteousness with a +3 Heavy Steel Shield and a +1 Flaming Bow.
* Other weapons I keep for special occasions are +1 Ghost Touch Light Pick of Pure Good, +1 Battleaxe of Pure Good, a Nicked Longsword, a Nicked Scimitar and a Wand of Magic Missile (3rd).
* The rest of the items in my inventory are a Disease Immunity Necklace of Cat's Grace, Bracers of Sustenance +3, a Mask of Tragedy and a Wand of Cure Moderate Wounds.
* For Thieves' Tools, I have 12 +2 and a lot of plain.
* I am up to 6 Potions of Resist Acid, but have only 1 Potion of Resist Fire and 1 Potion of Resist Fire 20.
* I only have one Potion of Remove Curse and wish I had a slew more.
* I have plenty of healing potions and I have a bunch of other potions that I rarely use.

Valak's Mausoleum aka Dead Girl's Spellbook - A timed quest, so you can't waste time finding stuff. I entered the big room and cleared out the undead there. The big room has niches in each of its corners and in each niche you have to throw a switch to continue and when you throw it, 2 skeletons spawn. Threw the switches and headed down the hallway. The next room is basically a maze with switches that have to be thrown. When you throw the switch, 2 melee skeletons and an Arcane Skeleton spawn. There are also a couple of wraiths hanging around. At the entrance to the room, I took the right side and cleared it out. Back to the room and followed the left wall to the next switch. Following the left wall will eventually take you to the last switch. Threw that, followed that wall to the secret door leading to the shrines (you can hear the shrine sound). Shrined up and headed down the next hallway. There are three traps there which are hard to spot and find. When I got to the next big room, I went left and followed the elevated path around to two valves. Threw the valves to open the next door, but throwing the valves spawned skeletons. After a big fight, I headed down the stairs to the next intersection. To the left is an optional passage that has a collectable and to the right is a shrine. Instead, I continued down the hallway and when I almost got to the door, it slammed shut and Gary Gygax told me it's a trap. Back up towards the intersection to find the trappers (they are slow to appear), then I got the collectable and shrined. As I ran down the hallway to the next room, I changed into a robe and then dived into the water. I swam left, entered the room, changed into my armor, threw the switch, cleared the room, went South to the secret door, opened it and cleared out that room. I switched back into my robe, swam across to the other side, grabbed the collectable on the way. I switched into armor, threw this switch, cleared out the room, used my Ring of Waterbreathing to swim back. I always skip the shrine behind the secret door to the North, but I don't remember why. Down the hallway to the next room. Went left, threw the switch, went across to the other side and threw the switch. Up the stairs, killed the spawned skeletons at the halfway point. Killed the Arcane Skeletons up there and then off to the East. Made the first jump, jumped back to kill the Arcane Skeleton, jumped across to the switch, threw it and then jumped back. To get to the Skeleton Archers on the North side, run along the West wall and then jump at the end to the mushroom. Jump over it, kill the Skeleton Archers, grab the collectable, jump in the water and return to the big room (I did this once the quest was finished, but I had to do it while I was there). Crossed to the other side, killed a left over skeletons on the way. Ran across to the switch, threw it and watched the floor collapse. I used my Feather Fall cloak and then jumped down to kill the Arcane Skeletons. Back to the big room and down the final hallway. Buffed up before entering the final room. Valak didn't spawn any minions, but he kept moving around which made him hard to target in melee. He took a while to wear down. After he was dead, the quest wasn't over - I had to grab the spellbook which is in front of Valak's coffin on the side towards the door. I never give the girl the book.

Well, I had hoped that I would be able to take as my Catacombs quest chain reward the Eternal Wand of Cure Minor Wounds, but I need Blindness Immunity to do the next quest, so I took the Blindness Ward Goggles instead.

Purge the Heretics - You almost have to have Blindness Immunity to do this quest as the final two bosses will blind you and fighting blind is futile. When fighting, run past the weaponless commoners and kill the casters first. For Disable Device, I am using the Utility Vest from the Phiarlan Carnival. I would switch to it and immediately, some enemy would show up. When you come down the hallway, straight ahead is room with oozes that is completely optional. Go right to get to the next intersection. It is a little tricky here as there are 4 traps and going to disable them will trigger some guards down the hall to your right. I stood next to the pillar on the left so I could see a guard, shot him with an arrow and then waited from them to attack me. After they were dead, I disabled all the traps. The only shrine is right next to the final battle, so shrine up first.

I have completed all of the level 6 quests that I have access to except "Gladewatch Output Defense" and "Redwillow's Ruins". "Gladewatch Output Defense" is very challenging for a solo melee as you have to keep the fort commander alive while you kill almost 300 mobs. I am down to 4 +2 Thieves' Tools, so I am going to do Free Agent quests to get up to 75 Free Agent favor (I am currently at 47) and unlock buying +2 Thieves' Tools.

That took me to 75 Free Agent favor and 300 favor overall. Next on my agenda is House P favor, as I want to be able to buy spells from their house vendor. I am at 57 and will hit 75 next level. After that is House D favor so I can buy +3 arrows. I am at 30 and will pick up quite a bit next level. The fifth inventory tab from Coin Lord favor would be nice, but I am 72 away and saving my money for the +2 INT tome. I would love to have another bank tab from House K, but I only have 16 House K favor. I am not all the excited about the House J 75 favor buffs and I only have 20 House J favor. I don't care about Silver Flame favor.

Continuing on:
Information is Key HARD
Information is Key ELITE

I want to run House D quests, but the pull of an Eternal Wand of Cure Minor Wounds is too strong. So I run the Catacombs series on Hard. In the middle, I finally successfully craft a +2 Constitution shard and the result Health +2 Ring of Light Fortification takes my hp up to 139.

The Friar's Niece HARD
To Find a Witness: Return to the Sanctuary HARD
The Old Archives HARD
The Crypt of Gerard Dryden HARD
Setting the Wards: The Lower Cathedral HARD
Setting the Wards: The Patriarchs' Crypt HARD
Endgame: Marguerite HARD
Endgame: The Archbishop's Fate HARD

Level 7

Fifth level of Paladin

At level 7, there is a definite change with quests taking much longer than they used to for the same classification of length. For example, "The Last Move: The Way to Yarkuch" and "First Strike" cover the same map and have similar amounts of fighting, but the former is Short while the latter is Medium. "The Last Move: Yarkuch's Last Stand" covers all of "Doom of the Witch-doctor: Zulkash, Herald of Woe" and then quite a bit more, but both are "Medium". It took killing 21 enemies to get the aggression bonus for "Caged Trolls" and 96 enemies for "Bargain of Blood", yet both are "Medium".

The Last Move: Yarkuch's Last Stand - Kind of a disappointing end to a long, long quest chain. The final battle is just another battle. Once the battle is over, I spent quite a bit of time in the quest finding secret traps and diarming traps in order to get all of the chests.

For the quest chain reward, I wanted the Visor of the Flesh Render Guards, however that wasn't in the reward list. My second choice was the Totemic Staff of Splinterskull and I took that. The Iron Defender is a better summons that a Hellhound - can take more damage, does a better job of pulling aggro and Grease is more helpful than the fire AOE. However, it takes a feat and 4 AP's and the improvement over a Hellhound doesn't justify that cost. Also, I can summon Hellhounds three times per rest where as I can only summon a Defender once per rest. With the increased length of quests, I can definitely have periods between rests greater than 10 minutes.

First Striek HARD - This took me to 75 House P favor. I could continue running Splinterskull quests to try to find valuable collectables, but I am tired of them. I am going to hope that I can find good stuff on other quests.

Bargain of Blood
* You have to shoot targets to open gates
* To do so, I changed to my bow, hit "T" to enter Targeting mode, moved the mouse until the aiming circle was on the target, clicked to fire, then hit "T" again to exit Targeting mode
* I went to the SE section and cleared it out
* There is a pole in this section with a ladder - climbed it and threw the lever
* There is a ledge around it that I climbed up using a ramp on the East side
* I followed the ramp around to the shrine and climbed the pole there to throw a switch, then on to the next section
* After I cleared it out, I shrined, went back to the SE section and went through the S gate to kill the first boss
* From there, I went to NE where the slave quarter is
* On the path there, there is a gap on the right which turns into a ramp down to the House Deneith scouts
* I talked with them and then stayed with them as they charged the slave quarter. They are pathetic and rapidly die, so I need to take the lead in fighting as much as possible
* This section has a lot of switches that cause traps to fire
* After I killed the boss and his minions there, I took a ramp up to throw a switch, went through the new open gate and threw all of the switches in the bottom row
* One of the "slaves" is a nasty Troll
* I went back to the SW section and up the ramp to the gate in the West side
* There is a switch to open it to the right of the gate
* I fought and disarmed traps until I saw the next gate
* I went back to the shrine outside the SW section to rest
* I shot the left target and then killed the final boss and his minions.

The Black Loch
* A very straightforward quest
* When you open the gate with the Red key, you can jump into the water to the left and hug the left wall to a shrine
* The first hallway you come to after the gate with the Red key leads to an optional battle (failed zombine experiments) with a chest and a collectable
* In that battle, I went into one of the cells the failed experiments had vacated and fought them while standing in the doorway - they couldn't mob me there
* According to DDoWiki.com, there is a chest shaped like a clam under the first shrine, but I could never find it.

I am 0 for 2 on Sigils - bad news

Storm the Beaches
* Tough quest where I thought I might die a number of times. I felt drained afterwards
* I always take the Spymaster's route. There is a collectable there and it is the only way to get the "Kill even more pirates" optional
* There is a shrine on that route, but it comes up so quick that I skipped it
* When you get to the overlook for the Fortress, you can pull out your bow, hit "T", shot the target next to the cage and release an Earth Elemental to kill pirates
* I probably should have not bothered and just Feather Falled down as it isn't that tough of a fight
* I should have snuck to the overlook because as I was fiddling around to make the shot, I was taking a lot of incoming damage from the defenders below. Also, some wolves and a shaman spawned while I was fiddling around
* To open the first gate, just stand next to it and the defenders will lower it for you
* To the West of the shrine, there are two ramps down. The one to the South isn't very visible
* I went North, cleared it out until I saw a big ramp down
* I then backtracked to West of the shrine and went to the South side
* On the South side, you can see an entrance to the inner fortress. The path doesn't go there and moving towards the entrance will cause you to slide down to the next level
* I cleared out Southern ballistas, hiked up to the entrance to just to smash the crates
* I went to the West side of the fortress and worked myself down to the West entrance to the inner fortress
* I went out on the pier and then to the ship. A tough battle there where I thought I may die. I should have had cold resistance
* From there, I hiked back up the ramps and went to the North side of the fortress. I Feather Falled down to the middle of the North side where the water comes up to the edge of the Fortress
* I cast Waterbreathing, swam down to get the collectable and then entered the inner fortress
* Another tough fight with two Water Elementals. I didn't realize that there was also a caster lurking that was pummeling me. I came too close to dying
* Shrined up there and then I went down the hallway to the main room of the inner fortress
* Another tough fight followed. I moved back in the hallway to keep from being surrounded, but the constant mobs just pounded on me. I thought I was going to run out of life before I ran out of enemies
* Healed up and then explored the rest of the hallways to get the 80 pirates killed
* I pulled the lever and destroyed the dimensional anchor and then wandered down the last hallway to the chest
* Again no sigil - are they still required?
* For this quest, I summoned Air Mephits because the Hellhound kept dying. The Air Mephit didn't die as fast, but I might as well had a parrot on my shoulder. I never saw it pull aggro and I never noticed damaging anything. I am strongly thinking of going back to the Steel Defender

The Grey Moon's Den: The Trollish Scourge
* Just wander down the caverns, killing everything as you go
* When you get to the cliff, take out the archers on top as quick as you can. The ladder up is to the right. Then go back down and pop the doors
* When you get to the cavern with the bridge, there is a ladder on each side. There isn't much point in going up them at this point as they just lead to a closed door that you can't open
* I wounded the troll chief Hammerfist pretty badly with my bow as he charged across the bridge
* Once he was dead, I crossed the bridge and the two closed doors opened

The Grey Moon's Den: Extermination
* The first half is mostly empty with only the scorpions and the black puddings reprising their appearance from the first quest
* When you get to the final cavern, kill the Trolls on the ground floor and then take the ladder up to the final boss

As a quest reward, I took the Mystical Dried Fish. The description says that it is used for crafting, but there are no recipes for it in Release U9 or U10. It will sit in the bank for who knows how long.

I tried "Redwillow's Ruins" again and blew throw most of the quest and it went even worse when fighting the Giants. This time, I essentially stayed in one place and tried killing things as fast as I could. I was hoping that the addition of all of the damage buffs would be enough, but they weren't.

I swapped out Power Attack for Self-Sufficient and reset my enhancements. I dropped:
Human Adaptability Strength I
Human Improved Recovery I
Paladin Devotion I

At this point, all I have left for level 7 quests are Long and Very Long. I have been having some space issues, so I am go to start running some Coin Lord quests.
The Storehouses's Secret HARD
The Storehouses's Secret ELITE
Heyton's Rest HARD
Heyton's Rest ELITE
The Collaborator HARD
The Collaborator ELITE
Redemption HARD
Redemption ELITE
Recovering the Lost Tome HARD
Recovering the Lost Tome ELITE
The Kobolds' New Ringleader HARD
The Kobolds' New Ringleader ELITE
The Sunken Sewer HARD

The Sunken Sewer ELITE - Ruin killed me once and came really close to killing me again. Slyssaris came very close to killing me. The difficuly of this quest jumped hugely from Hard

The Tide Turns
* I died on this quest during the final battle. The problem wasn't the final boss, it was the acid and cold damage from other enemies

I was successful with "Redwillow's Ruins" finally:
* When I entered the Giant area, I ran a little to my right towards the shrine. From there, I could use the portal as I reference point
* The main difference in tactics from last time was that I kept moving around so that the giants wouldn't surround me and I jumped out if they did
* I probably should have had Jump in effect to improve my ability to jump out
* As I moved around, I kept an eye out for goblinoids that I could quickly kill
* Still, it was a long, tough fight
* After it was over, I went to the shrine and two giants spawned there when I arrived - no problem
* Shrined and then headed North
* When I saw the last set of giants, they started throwing boulders at me. I switched to my bow, shot one, and then ran behind a wall. That giant and the final boss followed me. They weren't that hard to take out
* I then dispatched the final three giants

The Missing Party
* After all of my recent struggles, I had no problems on this quest to speak of. I used my Lay On Hands once
* This quest requires a hireling to do
* I figured out how to use the hireling to swim through the gates and reached an area I had never been to before
* This quest is basically a long, straight hallway bent over itself many times
* You don't need a blunt weapon of Pure Good for the Ghostly Skeletons, just a Pure Good weapon. I used a Battleaxe of Pure Good on them

Free Delera
* Another easy quest. I don't think my hp ever got under 100
* Another effectively a straight line quest
* There are two stairs down with gaps in the middle. Smash everything above the stairs before going down those stairs
* The only enemy that really hurt me were Arcane Skeletons, so I attacked them as soon as I heard them spawn

I bought a +2 INT Tome off the AH for 220k, so I am ready to level up now. I will probably buy some more bags and then start saving for my next tome.

The Graverobber
* Grind, grind, grind. This quest is just a slow, steady grind towards the end. Dread Zombies have a lot of hp and just have to be slowly ground down
* I tried to kill the Wight Priests as quickly whenever the appeared, jumping over a pack of Dread Zombies if needed
* The door to your right when you come down the stairs is optional and has a couple of wraithes and a spectre
* The map is a little tricky in that when you climb up to the hallway, the way to proceed is to go back down and take the other fork. The hallway to the right when you get to the top is optional
* Whe you get to the bottom, there is a door to the right that is optional and has a couple of Trog casters in it
* You throw a lever to enter the next to last room and it has a big Dread Zombie party going on
* You throw a fancy level to enter the last room. I got hit by too much magic there. I ran back until I turned a corner. There, the enemies came at me in ones and twos and were easy to defeat
* The final boss can cast Blind and throws lots of fire attacks

I bought a Medium Gem Bag. I have had at least one quest where I found more than 6 gems and they overflowed into my inventory. I wish I could by a Medium Ingredients Bag, but there doesn't seem to be such a beast. I shouldn't have thrown away my small collectables bag - I could place my overflow collectables into it and store it in my bank, freeing up a lot of slots. I think I could put all of the crafting collectables in my Medium Collectables Bag and as long as it was full, the other collectables would flow into my Small Collectables Bag. But as I don't have it, I can't test that.

Taming the Flames
* I had 30 minutes to do this quest as once the House P Resist Fire buff wore off, I would have taken too much damage to continue
* Consequently, I was under a lot of time pressure and didn't bother with the "Kill 50 Fire Elementals" optional. I ran past fire elementals when I could
* The Air Mephits can somewhat blind you, so I wore my Blindness Ward Goggles except when I knew I wasn't going to run into Air Pehpits
* I used my Nicked Longsword for the most part for the cold damage
* I went up the first hallway, turned right, found the hallway South and took that
* When I got to the "T", I went right to the closed roor, turned around, and there was a big group of elementals and mephits to fight. Tough fight
* Back to the door, opened it, threw the switch, over the to the other side of the "T" and down into that cavern
* As quick as I could, I grabbed the key and ran out
* After I fought some Air Mephits, I headed back to the center room, threw the switch on the North side and then went North
* I took the left fork, killed everything around to the far North, popped the door to the mephits, killed them, went down to Master Fulvio and shrined
* I then retraced my steps back to the center room, and then jumped down to the open door at the bottom
* I continued igonoring the traps, but started killing fire elementals once I entered the lower door
* The switch in the first cul-de-sac is high up on the South wall
* I charged the boss caster and killed him fairly quickly and then had a big fight killing all of his elementals and mephits
* As I went back to the center room, I disarmed all of the traps
* North from the center room, disarmed the trap, went right at the fork to kill the earth elementals for that optional
* The House P Fire Resist had worn off by time by the time I reached the cavern in front of Master Fulvio, where I had a final mephit battle
* I gave him the scroll and then finished

I got enough experience to level up, but I am going to continue on to see if I can complete the rest of the quests at level.

Gwylan's Stand
* Not a hard quest but it took me 80 minutes to complete
* This is an excellent quest for ranged damaged (i.e. a bow) as there are many places where you see mobs in the distance. Minotaurs in particular will spend a lot of time huffing and puffing while you shoot them
* When I came in, I went into the troll cave on the right
* There are a lot of Rust Monsters in this cave, but fortunately they aren't mixed in with the Trolls
* I grabbed all 8 cylinders and headed out, where all of the mobs that I fought on the way in respawned
* Through the jumgle to the ruins. I went up the stairs to the West cavern first
* I cleaned it out and shrined
* I went down the stairs, headed North and then bore left
* I killed all the Trolls in a ledge over there
* From there, I had an excellent shooting position on the mobs in the pit to the East
* I cleaned out the pit, shrined there and then went along the right wall
* There is a ledge that you have to step up to get to. On that, there is a trap. I waited below the ledge and watched the Hobgoblins get impaled by the trap
* Along the West wall to the final cavern. A tough battle at the entrance. I think the House P buffs were gone at this point
* DDO Wiki says that the final boss is always in the South, but he was in this cavern. There was a DM announcement like "Judging by the amount of supplies, this is the main encampment"
* I snuck down the slanting down hallway so I could disarm the traps without pulling the aggro of the mobs at the next landing
* I cleared out that landing, down the next ramp, cleared out that landing
* From there, I would use my bow to pull aggro and then run around the corner to await the mobs
* One group had so many casters, I had to go around the other corner as well
* I cleared out the bottom big room, shrined and then went West, I got careless there, took on too many mobs and took a lot of damage, but finally cleared everything out of the cavern
* Another fight when I exited and then shrined at the shrine I passed on my way South
* I went South and went I got to the final area, I went up the steps on the right and killed the Minotaurs there
* From there, I could shoot the Trolls below me to the East and took out the two Troll Shamans before they could get to me
* After I dispatched the Trolls, I went to their camp and then hugged the East Wall up the stairs to the North, ran through the traps and popped the chest
* I Feather Falled from there and went to the final cavern
* I cleared out that cavern and finished the quest
* I got almost 8k experience for the quest

The Tide Turns
* I learnt a lesson from the first time I did this, skipped all the optional areas and got to the final battle while I still had the House P buffs. I had about a minute left when the Water Elementals appeared, so it worked well
* I went through the door, up the stairs, back down the stairs, through the next door and to that room
* There are two hallways from that room. The right hallway is optional and Iskipped it
* Down the left hallway, cleared out the room, threw the switch and into the sewers
* In the first sewer room, there is no reason to go to the sewer room floor
* I climbed the ladder, went left, climbed the ladder in the SW corner of the room and grabbed the collectable
* When the steam wasn't going, I stepped to where the moss was and turned right. The steam blew me to the SE corner
* From there, I went North to the pipes I needed to navigate
* In the NE corner of the room is actually two gates back-to-back. To the left of that is a valve that opens one of those gates. Both are pointless and I ignored the valve
* Onto the pipe and I headed South. I timed the steam blast so as not to get hit. I then went West and jumped on to the ladder that leads up to a switch, which I threw
* From there, I jumped down to the pipe below with a steam jet and let it blow me high in the NE corner. From there, I jumped down to the pipe in front of the valve I ignored and took it around to the NW corner and out of the room
* The next swer room has a collectable on the floor and some rats. I accideentally fell, killed the rats and got the collectable
* I went North along the ledge and hopped onthe pipe. There is some steam from the right that I timed to avoid and then I went along the pipe
* At the end of htat pipe is a jump to the SE to another pipe. I jumped to it and then jumped to the ladder on the East wall
* I went up the ladder, grabbed the collectable and then jumped on to the pipes South of there. There is a switch there that opens the second gate in the NE of the first sewer room, but it is pointless to throw
* From there, I took the pipe West across the room. There is a little tricky spot where the pipe is raised it goes to the NW and you have to jump on to the raised part. That leads you to the switch that opens the door out of the second sewer room
* I went back across the room on the pipe I took to the switch until I reached a pipe that ran North to the exit. I timed the steam blast on that pipe to avoid getting blown off and then ran to the exit
* I went throough the rest of the sewer tunnels, through the door to the second floor, ignored the shrine, and entered the first hallway with a trap
* There, I pulled out the bow, shot the mobs ahead of me and watched them be killed in the trap
* After I disarmed the trap, I took the right hallway and disarmed the trap there. The hallway and room straight ahead are optional and I skipped them
* I cleared out the second floor and continued on until the hallway went steeply up. I then backtracked to the shrine and rested
* I cleared out the hallway to the next shrine, the shrine room and then I ignored the hallways to the left and right and instead continued East to the exit outside
* I killed everything as I ran to the ramp up, went up to the top floor and killed everything there as I ran to the contraption and threw the switch
* While that animations was going on, I cleaned out the top floor. I then ran back to say "Hi" to Captain Tew and then cleaned out the mobs that spawned when he left
* I then ran back to the second shrine, rested, and then ran back to the final floor
* I entered the final room, killed everyone, whooped on Ahraatz-Ri, killed the Water Elementals and then steadily beat the life out of Ahraatz-Ri
* I then ran back down the ramps to the second shrine, went South and sealed the pirates in the barracks, went North and sealed the pirates in that barracks as well
* I finished, grapped a +3 Charisma cloak and the Rusted Crown, As I had no sigils, the Rusted Crown wasn't very useful

The only level 7 quests I did do were "The Pit" and "The Tear of Dhakaan". I have never tried "The Pit" as it is so long. I don't want to do "The Tear of Dhakaan" until I have a blunt adamantine weapon to kill the Clay Golem.

Again, another obvious shift to longer quests. I have access to 1 Short quest ("The Path to Madness") and it is really a sub-quest of a Very Long quest ("The Xorian Cipher"). I have access to 3 Medium quests ("The Faithful Departed", "The Temple Outpost: Captives of the Cult", "The Temple Outpost: The Libram of the Six"). The first one is misclassified as it really should be Very Long. The other two are the back side of a wilderness area and it makes sense to do them at the same time. I have access to 7 Long quests and 2 Very Long quests.

Thrall of the Necromancer
* I had no trouble on this quest and the only time I took significant damage was fighting the Black Puddings and the last battle
* I almost missed the optional boss and his chest. In the Eastern room with the lever for the signal crystal, he was hiding under one of the stairs
* For the final battle, all of the undead die once the final boss is killed, so I focused on taking him out as fast as I could

The Temple Outpost: Captives of the Cult
* The quest is a long hallway that leads to a big square
* On the West, North and South sides of the square are two secret doors each, all of which lead to rooms collectables and loot. If you skip the secret rooms, the quest is a lot shorter buy a lot less rewarding
* Lots of hard fights and no shrine, so I was out of healing when it was all over
* I went down the hallway, turned right, went around the square killing everything in the hallways. When I got back to the "T", I retraced my steps and cleared out the secret rooms
* Several of the hallways had Trolls patrolling them. When I opened the door and saw Trolls in the distance, I pulled out my bow and started turning them into pin cushions
* The key to free the captives fell in the doorway to the Southeastern corner room, but I missed it the first time through and didn't find it until I had completely cleared the whole dungeon

The Temple Outpost: The Libram of the Six
* The first time I did this quest long ago, I did it so to maximize xp, which meant clearing out all the hallways and secret rooms before entering the room with the final boss. I didn't enjoy the quest. This time, I went straight to the final room and it was a lot more fun as it is a gauntlet of fights with the final boss taunting me the whole time
* After I killed the final boss, I then cleared out all the hallways and the secret rooms

Spies in the House
* This is a different style of quest where a lot of the time and effort is spent figuring out how to move higher in essentially one very big room
* The map is useless for this quest
* There are lots of places where it is not obvious how to move on
* There are 13 trap boxes in this quest, but you generally don't need to disarm them unless you want the xp (+15%)
* I recommend being able to cast Feather Fall at least 3 times per rest. Continuous Feather Fall would probably be really helpful
* At the start of the quest is a hole with a ladder. The hole is very deep and the ladder doesn't go very far. I fell off the ladder and took a lot of damage on the way down. Casting Feather Fall and jumping into the hole would have been more effective
* There is water at the bottom. After a short swim, I fought some Ice Mephits, then threw a lever. To the North is some water and beneath it, a second tunnel
* If you want to disarm traps, cast Waterbreathing before swimming through the second tunnel as there are three trap boxes underwater in the area at the end of the tunnel. The first is on the floor right at the end of the tunnel. If you swim along the left (West) wall out of the tunnel, when you turn the corner West there is trap box just above the floor that controls the sonic traps. Just North of it on the floor is the third box, which controls some spike traps
* From the trap box for the sonic traps, swim to the surface and a little to the North. You will see in the water beneath you a valve surrounded by spike traps. The trap box for the spike traps is on the wall directly above the valve, between two fish decorations, just under the water. You can disarm it from the water surface. Turning the valve opens a gate that is North of you
* Swim Northeast from there and get out of the water at next to the East wall. There is a spike trap there and a pipe structure on the East wall. Dodge the spike trap to get in the middle of the pipe structure. Search for traps there and you will find two boxes - one South of you that turns off the spike traps around you and one North of you that turns off the spike traps in the hallway North of you
* Go the hallway North of you, follow it to the end and throw the valve
* When you come out of the hallway, turn right (West) and follow the wall to some stairs that lead up to a necromancer and his skeletons
* If you backtrack about hallway to the first hallway, there is a pipe structure on the North wall. On it is the trap box for the spike trap to the left of the stairs
* A little to the North of the necromancer, there are three lights on the ground. They are initially green. The underwater valve should have turned one orange, the lever down the hallway should have turned the second orange. To the right of the lights is the third valve. Turning all three lights will initiate an air jet
* A few feet to the NE of the three lights on a pipe structure is a trap box. It controls some spike traps to the South of you
* The last trap box in this area is to the South of the three lights. Go down the stairs, South, dodge left around the fence and it is at the end of the wall on your left (East). It controls the spike traps in the open space to the East. However, going to the box will wake up the Skeletal Archers and they will keep you from disarming it
* You can use the air jet to avoid a bunch of Skeletal Archers. However, I recommend clearing them out as they will keep shooting at you while you do a quite a bit of the quest
* To use the air jet to get to the next section (saves a Feather Fall casting), move North into the air jet and when you start going up, go North so that you land on the ledge. To your right is another air jet that will blow you SE. Sidestep into its blast so that you are facing SE when it sends you flying to a walkway. Walk to the rounded 270 part of the walkway and look South - that grated floor is where you want to go. To the left of that and down are some boxes you are going to use to get there and beyond them is the top of a drawbridge. East of you is a pipe that leads away from the walkway. Walk East along the pipe. In front of you will be a valve that drops the drawbridge. Jump to the platform it is on and throw the valve. If you fall from here, you can now use the drawbridge to get where you want to, but hopefully you won't need it. Turn away from the valve, climb up on the right (North) wall and then follow it to the pipe West of the valve. Jump to the pipe/grate floor that is higher and to the West of you. Clamber over the pipe. Go South and below you is the drawbridge and some boxes near it. Jump to the boxes and then climb up them to the next grated floor
* Alternatively, head South from the three lights, fight up the ramp, fight along the South wall, keep going East until you reach the East wall, go North until you get to some boxes, use the Northern box to jump up to a walkway that runs back South. Take the walkway South, then West until it ends at a pipe with the drawbridge below you. Walk across the pipe South to another walkway along the South wall. At the second rounded bulge on the walkway, cast Feather Fall and jump to the grated floor to the North
* Either way you go, you are now on a grated floor with some boxes that create a ladder to the North and in distance you should see a wheel with green lighs above it. That is where you are going next. Go up the boxes to a pipe, go left on the pipe, right at the pipe intersection, jump over the gap in the pipe, then drop to your right to the pipe that leads to the green wheel. Turn the wheel twice (the fourth from the left light should be orange). Backtrack on your pipe to the air jet and jump up to catch its blast. It will throw you to the SW corner of the room where there is another air jet. Take that air jet up to another grated floor with boxes. You can hide behind the boxes and buff as there is a tough fight to your North
* Hop up the boxes to the fight. To your right is a box you can use to jump up to the section where most of the mobs are
* In the SW part of this section on a ledge where a skeletal archer is hanging out, there is a valve, turning it activates an air jet. Take the air jet across
* After killing the gargoyles, hop on boxes until you can reach the valve above you and turn it. Jump NW from that section and then go North to the section where the last tough battle was at. Go west across the bridge to the first prisoner. As you cross the bridge back, you will see a valve on your right. Turn it to open the gate off to your left
* Just a foot beyond where the gate was on the left side of the floor is a trap box which apparently does nothing on Normal and Hard
* Go up the ramp to below the water, fight some Air Mephits, go down the ramp to your left to the second prisoner. Throw the lever to your right to get to him
* Up the ramp to where the water disappears. To your left on the floor is a trap box which apparently does nothing on Normal and Hard
* Up to the top of the ramp where there is a Skeleton ambush
* Down the ramp to some Air Mephits. Beyond them is a room with lightning arcing around. The trap box for the lightning is to your right just as you step on the grating floor. If you don't disarm the trap, you will get shocked as you climb the ladder
* At the top of the ladder, there are a couple of Skeletons to fight. To your right is a secret door that hides a lever that activates an air jet
* Go back to the ladder area and try to position yourself so that you get blown to the alcove across from you. Feather Fall is a big help. Go into the alcove, climb over the pipe, smash the crates, unlock then pop the chest, jump down, climb the ladder up and continue on
* Go down the hall and fight the Skeletons there. Beyond them is a "T". To the right is the third prisoner and a lever. Release the prisoner and throw the lever. Back track to the "T" and go to the other side. To your left is a valve which opens a niche with a chest. Beyond that is a door that leads to the first shrine
* Go past the shrine to where there is an opening. You can see two archers from here. I can usually kill at least one with my bow. Then go back and shrine up
* Go back towards the opening. Before you get there, cast Feather Fall and Exp Retreat. Jump down. Run the edge of the room, avoiding the electric floor in the middle. You go West, then South, then back East to a section with water on the floor. Go Northeast until you get to the alcove with water streaming down on the far side. The ladder is to your right
* There are a number of archers who will shoot at you while you are fighting. You can take them out before you go up the ladder with a bow or you can try to get to the SE of this section to fight where it is sheltered from the archers
* Up the ladder and start fighting
* Once you have killed everyone, take the platforms in the center out to the end and there are 2 of the very rare crates in this quest
* Go the West side of the room and walk North. There will be a ladder on your left that leads to the last prisoner. Don't go up it yet. Continue North and on your left is a valve. Throw it to open the gate to the last prisoner
* Continue North, fight some Fire Mephits and take the ladder up to the second shrine
* Down the ladder and to the East is a fenced alcove with a gargoyle and a valve. Kill the gargoyle, throw the valve and smash the boxes
* Return to the ladder to the last prisoner and go free her
* Cast Feather Fall and then walk out of her niche to the left (North), falling to the pipe below. Jump East to the next pipe and then jump East again to the third pipe. Walk right (South) to the valve at the end of the pipe. Turn it to turn on an air jet. Walk North on the pipe to the end and then up on the platform to your left
* To the right of the air jet above the pipe end is the last trap box
* I had lots of troubles with the next jump, not landing on anything and falling a long way down. The one time I was successful was standing between the air jet and the pipe end and jumping on from there. Cast Feather Fall and then jump on to the air jet. You should land on a pipe
* Face East and you will see an electric floor. Cast Resist Electricity as you have to run on the floor. Run to the boxes on the far side and jump up on to them
* The boxes are safe and if you run back to them, the Fire Elementals won't follow you there and won't attack you there. You have to kill 4 Fire Elementals which spawn one after another. The problem is that they can float and will often be out of range of the pipe. Running back to the boxes sometimes lures them close enough to the pipe. Sometimes running down the pipe section to the South and back will lure them close enough to the pipe
* After you kill the 4 Fire Elementals, throw the 3 valves that are to the North, East and West of the intersection in the wide pipe. DDO Wiki implies that it would be better to throw the valves before/during the battle with the Fire Elementals
* After the valves are thrown, head South on the wide pipe and continue on as it bends West. Time running past the vents. If they blow you off, just run for the boxes in the SW corner
* In the SW corner is an air jet. I could also see an Air Mephit from there and was able kill him with my bow
* You want to be facing South when stepping in front of the air jet. It takes you to yet another electric floor. Look North and that is the boxes you want to get to. Run to them
* Up on the pipe, another Air Mephit will attack you. East is a valve you must throw. Try to time the cold jets in your run to there
* Come back to the center and then drop down to the small pipe that runs North parallel to the wide pipe. Walk it to the ladder and then go up the ladder
* The last shrine is to the South of the ladder. There are two crates to your left as you go towards the shrine and there is one to the right of the shrine. Shrine up
* Come back to the ladder. There are some drains North of it. Hop on one, go West and jump at the end to the next ladder
* There are 4 eye candy valves ahead of you for you to ignore. Go up the ramp, across and down the ramp. When you turn the corner, you will see two gargoyles. Watch their schtick and then kill them. Throw a valve to make a bridge
* A little bit more fighting and you are at the end. I think there is one last crate you want to shoot before getting to close to the final pipe or you won't get Ransack

Gladewatch Outpost Defense
* One of my least favorite quests
* I right-clicked on Commander Tesara and cast Aid on her and then went out the main gate to fight the hordes
* Commander Tesara was in my focus window, so I could watch her health
* When it started dropping, I went looking for her. She wasn't in the fort. She was on the path on the far side of the shrine from the main gate. She must have gone out the side entrance
* I healed her up and then went back to the main gate
* Eventually, Commander Tesara, my Mithral Companion and I wound up at a spawn point down the road at where a path leads off to the right. The three of us could easily kill whatever spawned. It got boring after a while

I needed 3 more Deneith Favor to unlock the Deneith favor vendor. I ran "The Depths of Despair" on Hard. Then I bought some +3 Deneith Arrows and a Deneith Wide Quiver.

Equipment update:* From Korthos, I have the Anger's Gift necklace, the Anger's Step boots, 3 Feather Cloaks, the Ring of Waterbreathing and 2 Bracers of Assistance.
* I have crafted a Tiara of Wizardy II, Goggles of Battle Skill +1 (soon to add Blindess Ward to it), +2 Lesser Fire Guard Full Plate of Invulnerability, +2 Natural Armor Bracers (soon to add Balance +5 to it), Ogre Power +2 Belt of Lesser False Life, Health +2 Ring of Light Fortification, Unbalancing Ring (soon to add Spell Resistance (15) to it), a +2 Warhammer of Lesser Undead Band, a Superior Ardor I Maul, a +2 Ghost Touch Heavy mace of Lesser Undead Bane, a Clever +2 Ring of Power III and a Proof Against Poison Necklace
* The rest of what I usually equip is a Voice of the Master, a Charismatic +3 Cloak or a Cloak of Resistance +2 and Dexterous +2 Gloves.
* The items I regularly use to buff are Gloves of Owl's Wisdom (3/rest) and a Necklace of Bull's Strength (1/rest).
* My Rogue skils items are Goggles of Minute Seeing +5, Gloves of Disabling +5, and Utility Vest (DD5, OL5, Dex+2).
* My sneaking items are a Robe of Shadow and Boots of Silence +3.
* My main weapon sets are a +3 Khopesh of Righteousness with a +1 Ghost Touch Light Pick of Pure Good and a +1 Flaming Bow.
* Other weapons and shields I keep for special occasions are +3 Heavy Steel Shield, +2 Densewood Shield, Muckbane, +1 Battleaxe of Pure Good, a Nicked Longsword, a Nicked Scimitar and a Totemic Staff of Splinterskull. I have a +2 Heavy Steel Shield of Blinding that I am playing with to see if I should deconstruct it or not.
* The rest of the items in my inventory are a Lesser Fire Guard Robe of Spearblock, Chiku's Bauble, Blindness Ward Goggles, Ring of Mage Armor, an Eternal Wand of Cure Minor Wounds, a Wand of Bless, a Wand of Mage Armor, a Wand of Owl's Wisdom, a Wand of Magic Missile (3rd), a Wand of Fox's Cunning (6th), a Wand of Cure Moderate Wounds and a Wand of Cure Critical Wounds.
* For Thieves' Tools, I have 12 +2 and a lot of plain.
* I have the following Resist potions: 8 Acid, 6 Cold, 7 Electricity, 3 Fire, 7 Sonic, 2 Fire Protection, 1 Sonic Protection, 1 Fire 20
* I only have one Potion of Remove Curse and wish I had a slew more.
* I have plenty of healing potions and I have a bunch of other potions that I rarely use.

I have stopped selling my collectables for crafting. I also rarely find a collectable for rituals, so my income has severely dropped. Now, I make most of my money from weapons and armor that I find that don't have a prefix or suffix.

Stromvauld's Mine
* I was concerned that the Drow would have magic weapons that would bypass the Invulnerability of my armor, but they didn't
* I found this quest easy and finished it without using either shrine. As I had 30 minutes of buffs, I went all the way to the end as quick as I could, killing as I went and then once everything was dead, I backtracked to smash everything and to find the gems and the corpses
* There are a lot of archers on platforms in this quest, so the +3 Deneith Arrows were very handy
* When you exit the first cavern, there are a some Large Rust Monsters lurking about. There aren't any more for the rest of the quest
* At the first intersection, right leads you to a dead end. You need to go straight across. That tunnel quickly bends right (South) and then leads to another intersection. To the left is a cave with a switch which opens the next door. To the South is an optional
* The far South cave contains 4 quiescent Greater Earth Elementals. Their cave has a collectable, an uncut gem for an optional and a chest. Popping the chest wakes up all of the Greater Earth Elementals for a tough fight
* Once this passage is cleared out, head back to the original intersection and go North
* You come to a large two level cavern. To the left is a trapped rock "ladder" that leads up to the upper level. You need to pop the chest to your left to get the key to open the door ahead of you
* Beyond the door is a tunnel that leads past the first shrine. My recollection is that now you will start seeing corpses and the rest of the uncut gems. Hit "Q" constantly to search for them
* You come to a ledge overlooking a large cavern. I used Feather Fall to drift down to a corner. A tough fight ensues
* There is a ladder in the cavern that leads down. It leads down to several ledges with another ladder down. One ledge has a door that leads to a shrine. I didn't notice the lever and inadvertently bypassed healing up
* Eventually you get to another large cavern where there is another tough fight
* On the floor of the cavern there are two ladders close to each other leading up. One leads up to a chest and the other leads to a lever that opens the final door
* Go through the final door for the final fight
* In the room of the final fight is a big cage. The chief engineer is inside

Sands of Menechtarun Wilderness Area
* I ran this some to get enough Antique Bronze Tokens to turn in for hopefully a Deathblock robe
* I killed 52 gnolls and 7 undead
* I got 13 Antique Bronze Tokens
* I did fine when fighting against one or two enemies, but it was pretty dicey against a group of any size
* I found the Summoning Circle, tried stringing out the mobs by running away except they would just respawn, tried focusing on a single summoner and I ended up underneath the Air Elemental, who would knock me down every time I got up. They kept whacking on me and I eventually died.
* I was able to clean out the Desert Overlook.
* I found some of the Firebrand Pyromancers, but they healed themselves faster than I could damage them and I had to run away.
* The Wilderness Area was just too tough for me and my Tokens per minute rate was too low to justify doing

The Tear of Dhakaan
* I died on this run
* You need to get buy a rune of INT 22, a rune of WIS 21 and a lever that requires STR 22 to get all of the optionals
* This quest can take a lot of backpack space as there are a lot of chests and the 6 Tears. You can throw the Tears away once you find them as they are only worth 10 pp at the end of the quest
* I can do the STR 22, but I bought a level 8 Wizard (K'zurth Qarab) and a level 8 Cleric (Fergus) for the 2 runes
* It is important to be able to deal with archers on platforms as there are lots of them on this quest
* When I entered the quest, I summoned K'zurth Qarab and parked him at the entrance
* I went through the door and down to the small bridge
* I swam under the small bridge to get the collectable
* On the far side of the bridge are two switches. I threw the West one and then headed West
* I cleaned out the section to the rune, called K'zurth Qarab to me, had him activate the rune and then dismissed him
* I went through the rune door, cleared out that room, threw the switch, went through the secret door, cleared out that section and got the Tear
* Back to the small bridge, threw the other switch and then headed East. I cleared out that section and got the Tear
* Back to the small bridge, ran back to the entrance, smashed all the boxes there, summoned Fergus, parked Fergus at the entrance, went back to the small bridge, threw the lever next to the door and headed North
* At the end of the hallway, I jumped to the left and continued down that hallway
* I used Feather Fall instead of the ladder, threw the first valve at the base of the ledge
* I went right at the base, shooting the two guys on the other side of the water from me. I then climbed across the pipes to their location. On the back side is a valve. I then jumped into the water and swam down to the third valve
* I went back towards the base and on to the now-open West side. I went through the secret door to get the Tear
* I climbed back up to the top, went back to where the hallway ended, jumped down to get the collectable and then climbed down to the next ledge
* After I cleared out the mobs there, I cast Waterbreathing and jumped into the water, swimming through the tunnel
* After exiting the water, I cleared out the section. I found a lever behind some boxes on the left and through it. I backed up to the newly-opened alcove with the rune and summoned Fergus to deal with it
* I charged into the newly opened area, went left, hopped onto some boxes and then up some ledges until I came to the Tear and the collectable
* My House P buffs ran out about this time
* Back a bit and went through the secret door to the North to the shrine and rested
* I swam back and went North to the ambush room
* I went right and killed the caster there, then went back to the entrance and killed the archers up and to my right while the Defender killed the melees on the bridge. I then charged across the bridge and went left to kill the archer there. I went back to the South and up the ladders to kill the remaining mobs. I then smashed everything and jumped into the water on the North side of the bridge to get the collectable that was in a small underwater tunnel. I then swam to the ladder and headed North
* I turned the bend into a fight. I cleared that, turned the valve, went North, threw the lever, turned the corner into a large room with ~7 mobs on platforms shooting on me
* After dispatching them with my bow, I went South and in the SE corner up on a platform is a valve. I jumped on the pipe to its right on the South wall and jumped up from there. I then swam down to the base of the West wall close to the South end to get the collectable. I went to basically the dead middle of the room and swam down to the floor to turn the second valve. The third valve is on top of a platform on the North side which I reached by jumping on pipes to its right. I turned it and then headed out of the room
* I header North into a fight, cleared out the mobs there, turned the valve and entered a room with several platforms with mobs shooting at me. I killed the melees and then pulled out the bows to kill the mobs on the platforms. On the base of the Southernmost platforms are the levers to open the North door. On a small hole in the underwater floor under the Southeastern platform is a collectable. After throwing the levers and grabbing the collectable, I climbed out of the water - the ladder in on the North side of the NE platform
* I continued North and then West, clearing out the mobs. When I got to the hole with the pipe, I backtracked to the shrine and rested
* I went back to the pipe, cast Feather Fall and then jumped down to the door. I popped the door into a tough fight
* I went down the hallway through several fights until I reached a door. I went down the hallway to the left to another door. I opened it, threw the lever and went back to the earlier door
* I wished I had waited on the second shrining. It has been MUCH tougher since going down the hole and I have used up all of my Lay On Hands and CLW spells. I only have 3 Resist Fire potions and 8 Resist Acid potions, so I haven't used any yet on this quest and the Melf's and the fire spells are really hurting
* Down the hallway a little bit and then I am at the main square. I drank a Jump potion before entering. Enemies respawn constantly here
* To the left is a mushroom and then some platforms that lead up to a cave on the top of the waterfall. I started the jumps up to the cave, missed one and fell into the water below. Back up the ramps to the top and tried again. This time, I was successful
* In the cave is a Clay Golem. I summonned my Mithral Defender and I hoped that he would pull his aggro while I would shoot arrows at him. It works for a while, but eventually I get his aggro. I kill him and didn't get a Cursed Wound. Yeah! I heal up and then jump down the waterfall. I swam down to the bottom of the waterfall and grabbed a collectable. I then swam towards the exit of the Main Square
* I popped out of the water near the exit. I ignored the horde in the main square and threw the lever for the door. I ran through and discovered another horde in front of me. Dungeon Alert went Yellow. I soon died

The Tear of Dhakaan Reprise
* I am going to straight to the end so that hopefully the House P buffs will still be active. The battles once I went down the hole got much tougher, so I need the buffs for that. Once I finish, I will then backtrack, smashing stuff, getting collectables and clearing out side branches
* I went through the door and down to the small bridge, threw the lever next to the door and headed North
* At the end of the hallway, I climbed down the ladder to the right, down the next ladder and went North to the ambush room
* I went right and killed the caster there, then went back to the entrance and killed the archers up and to my right. I then charged across the bridge, killed the melees and went left to kill the archer there. I then climbed up to the ledge on the South wall, killed the mobs there and turned the valve. I climbed down, turned the valve in the NW corner, then headed North
* I turned the bend into a fight. I cleared that, turned the valve, went North, threw the lever, turned the corner into a large room with ~7 mobs on platforms shooting on me
* After dispatching them with my bow, I went South and in the SE corner up on a platform is a valve. I jumped on the pipe to its right on the South wall and jumped up from there. I went to basically the dead middle of the room and swam down to the floor to turn the second valve. The third valve is on top of a platform on the North side which I reached by jumping on pipes to its right. I turned it and then headed out of the room
* I headed North into a fight, cleared out the mobs there, turned the valve and entered a room with several platforms and mobs shooting at me. I killed the melees and then pulled out the bow to kill the mobs on the platforms. On the base of the Southernmost platforms are the levers to open the North door. After throwing the levers, I continued on
* I continued North and then West, clearing out the mobs. When I got to the hole with the pipe, I cast Feather Fall and then jumped down to the door. I popped the door into a tough fight
* I went down the hallway through several fights until I reached a door. I went down the hallway to the left to another door. I opened it, threw the lever and went back to the earlier door
* I drank a Jump potion at the open door. Down the hallway a little bit and then I am at the main square
* To the left is a mushroom and then some platforms that lead up to a cave on the top of the waterfall. I started the jumps up to the cave, missed one and fell into the water below. Back up the ramps to the top and tried again. This time, I was successful
* In the cave is a Clay Golem. I buffed then killed him, but sadly got a Cursed Wound - no healing until the next shrine. I grabbed the Tear and the collectable, cast Waterbreathing and jumped down the waterfall. I swam down to the bottom of the waterfall and grabbed a collectable. I then swam towards the exit of the Main Square
* I popped out of the water near the exit. I killed a couple of mobs then threw the lever for the door. I stepped through and hid behind the left side of the door frame. I killed the mobs that followed me there
* I went down the hallway, took the right (North) fork and then the West bend
* I continued North and entered a room with a ramp to my left. I went up the ramp, around and grabbed the Tear. Down the ramp, headed West, opened the door to the North and shrined up
* From the shrine, I fought South, went West, down the ladder, through the 2 doors and killed the big boss. My House P buffs wore off shortly thereafter
* I hadn't killed Warmage Zurat-Khor, so I can still get full xp. I reversed course, went up the ladder and followed the tunnels back, smashing and grabbing as I went
* I retraced my steps to the Main Square and it was eerily silent. I popped the chest, smashed the crates, killed the two mobs that spawned, climbed to the top and killed three mobs up there
* I returned to the dead end with the trapped lever and disarmed the traps
* I continued the quiet walk back, climbed up the ladders to the upper levels and came to the room with the bridge and several platforms. I went to the SE platform with the lever, jumped into the water and swam down to the collectable in a hole in the floor. I swam to the North side of the NE platform to the ladder to climb out, then headed South
* I continued on to the next water-and-platform room. I went South from the entrance and then swam down to the underwater floor to get the collectable, I then climbed back up the ladder and then jumped across
* I continued on, ignored the shrine, and came to the ambush room. After smashing barrels, I jumped into the water and swam down to the collectable in a small tunnel under the North side of the bridge
* I continued back towards the entrance, climbed up the two ladders, then jumped to the tunnel leading off to the West. I had my first fight in a while and it felt good
* I used Feather Fall instead of the ladder, threw the first valve at the base of the ledge
* I went right at the base, shooting the two guys on the other side of the water from me. I then climbed across the pipes to their location. On the back side is a valve. I then jumped into the water and swam down to the third valve
* I went back towards the base and on to the now-open West side. I went through the secret door to get the Tear
* I climbed back up to the top, went back to where the hallway ended, jumped down to get the collectable and then climbed down to the next ledge
* I returned to the entrance, disarming a trap along the way. I summoned Fergus the Cleric, parked him and headed back North. I went to the ledge where I could jump down into water, jumped down and swam through the tunnel to a new section
* After exiting the water, I cleared out the section. I found a lever behind some boxes on the left and through it. I backed up to the newly-opened alcove with the rune and summoned Fergus to deal with it. After he activated the rune, I dismissed Fergus
* I charged into the newly opened area, went left, hopped onto some boxes and then up some ledges until I came to the Tear and the collectable
* I jumped back down, went through the secret door to the North and shrined up. Then I swam back, up the ladders and headed back to the entrance, where I summoned K'zurth Qarab and parked him
* Back to the small bridge. I swam under the small bridge to get the collectable
* On the far side of the bridge are two switches. I threw the West one and then headed West
* I cleaned out the section to the rune, called K'zurth Qarab to me, had him activate the rune and then dismissed him
* I went through the rune door, cleared out that room, threw the switch, went through the secret door, cleared out that section and got the Tear
* Back to the small bridge, threw the other switch and then headed East. I cleared out that section and got the Tear
* Back North, down the pipe, through the Main Sqaure (which had a lot of mobs this time) and out West. I took the West fork this time, found Zurat-Khor and completed the quest

The Faithful Departed
* You should have a Blindness Ward item and a Proof Against Poison item equiped through out this quest
* You should be able to cast Feather Fall
* I got lots of House P buffs and the Drow dispelled most of them fairly early in the adventure Luckily for me, the Owl's Wisdom lasted the longest
* There is a small wilderness quest before the actual quest. Any buffs will be dispelled and any summons will be lost when you enter the actual quest, so don't waste a lot of resources in the wilderness area
* From the entrance, I ran down the hill and up the other side. When the path jags left, I had my first fight
* I fought all the way up to the bridge and had 1 Drow left for the optional
* Below the bridge is a lake and a shore on the far side. I cast Feather Fall and then floated down a little short of the shore
* Up to the shore and the fighting started again
* As I climbed up the hill, there was a small path off to the left that is not obvious. However, I continued past up the hill to kill the Drow in the box end canyon
* Back to the path and continue up to the actual quest entrance
* Most of this quest is a straightforward fight as you explore
* There are three rooms with simple wood doors that have a Venerated in them. There is a fourth Venerated in the final room. You must save two of the four Venerated. The Venerated in the last room is hard to save, so you want to save at least two of the Venerated in the smaller rooms
* Venerated are just another enemy when you first enter their room. After you kill all of the Drow in their room, they become non-speaking NPC's. Hirelings and summons will attack the Venerated and Area of Effect spells will damage them
* I didn't use a hireling, but when I did use one earlier, I parked it far from the room and commanded it to do nothing. If I didn't do that, the hireling could join in the fighting and kill the Venerated
* I think the Mithral Defender killed one of the Venerated in this session. I should have summoned a different, wimpier summons to replace the Mithral Defender before entering the room of the Venerated
* The Venerated can give you a nasty disease. Fortunately, my paladin was immune
* When I entered the room of a Venerated, I went left and started whacking on Scorrow. If I passed by a Drow, I whacked it too. If I saw a Scorrow Wizard, I tried to kill right away as it didn't have much HP
* After I had whacked everything and pulled their aggro, I retreated to the doorway and fought until everything was dead. I then went into the room and cleared out any remaining Drow
* I saved Venerated #1 and #3, so I didn't have to save the final Venerated
* I entered the final room and killed the few mobs around
* I then went up the stairs and 15-20 mobs spawned. A tough fight ensued. I think I had to kill the Scorrow Cleric before I could kill the final Scorrow boss because the Scorrow Cleric kept healing the Scorrow boss

I am thinking about buying a +1 CHR and a +1 WIS tome. The +1 CHR tome will take me when buffed to 22 CHA, giving me another +1 Charisma bonus. The +1 WIS tome will allow me while wearing the +2 WIS necklace I found to cast spells.

I have the "Vault of Night" adventure pack, but I am going to ignore it for now. It is not a solo-friendly adventure pack. The first five quests are long, difficult, have few chests and no quest rewards. Those quests are flagging quests for a raid, which I am not going to be doing.

The Fane of the Six: Cleansing the Temple
* A straight forward quest. I didn't need to rest while doing it. I would have done it even faster if I had just gone down the main hallway and ignored the side passages
* I got House P buffs this time and that was wise as I got hit with a lot of fire spells

I bought the +1 WIS tome

The Fane of the Six: Fall of the Prelate
* Lots and lots of fire damage this quest
* This quest is confusing in that you have to solve two puzzles in order to open a door, but the puzzles aren't anywhere close to the door
* To get to the entrance, go to the right of the main temple entrance and then go through the bushes. That will lead to a rock path that goes down and then right and eventually to the quest entrance
* When you come in, go South to the first puzzle. Nothing happens when you solve it
* Backtrack a bit and then head over to the shrine. Go South past the shrine to get to the second puzzle. When this puzzle is solved, a group of Fire Mephits appear. DDOWiki suggests: "Note: you can avoid this fight by leaving the puzzle piece closest to the entrance for last. As soon as you turn the last piece, hop out of the room. The door slams shut after you slip out, locking in the mephits." I fought the Mephits to get the collectable in the room beyond
* DDOWiki suggests, "Now head up the hallway from the shrine, up to the bridge. Hop down off the bridge and move down the stairs, go on through the large, now open, doorway." This is to avoid another Fire Mephit battle. I went North, followed the hallway around to the main temple, turned left there and went through the open doorway
* Things are straight forward from there - enter each room and clear it out, then advance to the next room. One room has a secret door in the back that leads to a chest and a collectable. One room has a lever hidden behind a sarcophagi in the center of the back wall
* Once you kill Prelate Vendisto, go East for the chest and the collectable. The head back West until you get to a hallway North and take it
* One final Fire Mephit and you are done

I am surprised at how much my money making and crafting have dropped off. I made a lot of money off of the collectables in Tangleroot and Phiarlan Carnival. Now that I have moved on, the other quests just don't provide much in the way of valuable collectables. The amount of money I make selling equipment that can't be deconstructed for crafting is not very significant. After making ~450k through level 7, I have made probably ~50k since. Taking the wrong feat hurt as it will take a lot of quests to recover the money I spent correcting the mistake. I was going to hold on to my crafting collectables, but I am going to sell some of them in order to generate some income. My list of wants is long - +2 CON Tome, +2 CHR Tome, +2 STR Tome, Large Collectables Bag, Large Ingredients Bag - and I am not making any progress on it.

On the crafting side, the main issue is that the recipes now require so much more essences than before and the amount of essences I have been finding has been keeping up. Most of the recipes I am looking at require 6 major and 32 minor where as before it was 3 and 12. I have a list of recipes I want to make and it doesn't change as I can't get the essences to make any of them.

The Last Stand
* I failed twice on this quest before succeeding. Each fail was because Viercha Ettervs died
* The quest doesn't start until you talk to Viercha. Consequently, I smashed everything and grabbed all the collectables before talking to Viercha
* The quest goes like this: there is a wave of attackers on the main platform, there is a wave of attackers on the village proper, there is a wave of attackers on the main platform, you have a chance to rest, there is a wave of attackers on the main platform, a little break and then a boss necromancer attacks
* When there is a wave of attackers on the village proper, there will be a big fight rignt next to the main platform. Going to the right of the shrine (South) seemed to work best for me
* After the big fight next to the platform, there will be at least one Sahuagin in the distance. It took me a while to find him. I eventually found it far from the main platform. I didn't want to go to him as that would mean the next attack would spawn while I waa slogging through the water back to the main platform. I pulled out a bow and tried shooting him, but it was like he hadn't activated yet. Eventually, I pulled his aggro, he charged me, I killed him and then made it back to the main platform before the next wave
* When the necromancer appeared, I went after him and fought him until he was dead. I guess he summoned some undead, but I never saw them
* Viercha Ettervs was the only drow to survive

I decided to grab some easy chests:
Cerulean Hills rare encounters
Haverdasher HARD
Haverdasher ELITE
Waterworks rare encounters
Tangleroot Gorge rare encounters (Note: Jana the lost barmaid is to the right (East) of the entrance to the Overgrown Fortress)

I was reading up on Paladin and I had a "brilliant" idea. I saw that the Vulkoor's Avatar enhancement allows a Paladin to summon a "Drow Scorpion". I assumed that this would be a Scorrow. So I decided to swap out the Self-Sufficient feat for Combat Expertise. That reset my enhancements and as I was picking new ones, I realized that the Vulkoor faith enhancements were for Drow only. As it cost me 15k to swap feats, I decided to make the best of it. I took the Defender of Siberys I prestige enhancement to test it out.

Fathom the Depths, try 1
* I was killed by the second set of water elementals near the shrine. I took too long getting to the quest and my House P buffs ran out around when I threw the switch

Fathom the Depths, try 2
* I was killed by the boss muckman after I killed the boss Sahuagin caster
* I did a much better job of getting to and through the quest, so my House P buffs ran out during the two boss battle. Both of the bosses do a lot of acid damage and I am guessing that when my House P Resist Acid ran out, I started taking a lot of damage. After I killed the caster, I drank a Resist Acid pot and tried running around, but the boss Muckman was damaging me as fast as I was curing myself. I eventually gave up trying to heal myself, tried fighting the boss Muckman and was killed

My thoughts on the Defender of Siberys enhancement and Combat Expertise: The Defender of Siberys Defensive Stance didn't suit me at all. I move constantly when I fight and the 25% movement was terrible. Consequently, I didn't use it. The Protection from Evil spell was nice, but not worth the cost of 8 Action Points. With Combat Expertise, I was rarely getting damaged by melees and took almost all of my damage from casters. However, I always forgot to turn Combat Expertise off when I cast spells, so I was burning through my spell points faster than when I didn't have it. Overall, I don't think it provided much of a benefit.

Fathom the Depths, try 3
* As I was so close to finishing the quest when the House P buffs ran out, I am going to focus on cutting down my time to get to and through the quest
* To get to the Red Fens, I discovered that taking the Teleporter from House P to Houe K saves 10 seconds over running through the Marketplace
* To get to the quest, I ran along the South edge of the Wilderness area. I took the South exit of the camp, casting Feather Fall before jumping down the waterfall and then casting Exp Retreat once I came to the Mire Rats. From there, I ran basically due West until I came to some raised rocks to the NW that I followed. Those rocks took me to the edge of the Giant Mushroom Forest. I re-cast Exp Retreat when it ran out. I hooked left and took a wide circle around the forest, sticking mostly to rocks except when I took a mushroom bridge. When I saw a fence in the distance, I jumped onto a rock next to a mushroom bridge and took that to some mushrooms that lead me to the ziggurat. By that time, I was at Yellow Dungeon Alert. I kept running until the Exp Retreat wore off and then I ran around the next corner. There I hit my Haste and Damage buffs, then turned and fought those behind me
* I then fought my way to the top of the ziggurat, cleared off the top, rested, then entered the quest
* Talked to Foxpaw and then headed North. The first section is a straightforward hack-and-slash as you move East to the switch. Don't worry about chest or collectables at this point as you can't get them until the switch is thrown. It is best to smash breakables as you come across them. Chat with the Drow captives as you come across them. You should have one left when you reach the ladder down to the switch
* I went down the ladder, killed everyone, smashed everything, talked to the last Drow and then threw the switch
* The second section has a lot of swimming, three traps, a secret room and two fights with Water Elementals
* I disarmed the traps, found and cleared the secret room, and grabbed collectables when convenient
* I went back to the original section, cleared out the Sahuagin there and then went up the stairs
* Fought my way to a big room with a boss sitting on the platform in the middle. He summoned a giant boss Muckman. Killed the caster and then killed the Muckman. This "finished" the quest
* On the North side of the room is a pool. I swam down there, threw the lever, went through the now open gate and killed the Sahuagin there
* As my buffs were ending, I backtracked to the first room and then made the loop through the Western section again to grab collectables and chests. I also rested at the shrine in the big room
* South of where I fought the Water Elementals is a collectable in a niche. I climbed up on some debris on the West side of the room where the second set of Water Elementals were and then pulled myself on top of the wall. I then headed South, jumped over to the wall on the other side of the hallway, continued to the niche and then jumped down into it
* I then went back to the guardian's room. I climbed down to the floor. You have to turn off all of the symbols on the squares in the floor to make it vulnerable. I did some and then just started following the guardian. It would activate symbols and then I would deactiviate them. Eventually, the guardian hit a gap between symbols and I had all of the symbols deactivated
* I swigged a potion of Resist Acid and then started swinging. Not much of a battle. I opened its chest, got the key and looted the treasure room

I had lots of troubles doing the The Claw of Vulkoor and I was tired of being broke, so I decided to do Tangleroot Gorge on Hard:
The Hobgoblins' Captives HARD
Yarkuch's War-plans HARD
Whisperdoom's Spawn HARD
The Deadly Package: The Stronghold Key HARD
The Deadly Package: Agent of the Darguul HARD

I am also running out of inventory space, so I did some Coin Lord quests:
Missing in Action HARD
Missing in Action ELITE
Garrison's Missing Pack HARD
Garrison's Missing Pack ELITE

That took me to 150 Coin Lord favor. I bought a Collapsed Portable Hole through the Trade Channel and I now have 5 inventory tabs.

I have tried The Claw of Vulkoor and failed so many times that I am giving up on it for now. Instead, more Splinterskull:
Doom of the Witch-doctor: The Way to Zulkash HARD
Doom of the Witch-doctor: Zulkash, Herald of Woe HARD
The Last Move: The Way to Yarkuch HARD
The Last Move: Yarkuch's Last Stand HARD

Once again, the Visor of the Flesh Render Guards was not in the reward list. I took Lhor-Tragu's Shadowed Armor instead. I had a level 12 toon on this server give me the Visor of the Flesh Render Guards for the Totemic Staff of Splinterskull. I really dislike it when the item I ran a quest chain for doesn't appear in the quest chain reward list.

I decided to rerun the Phiarlan Carnival quests to try to get the shield:
A Small Problem HARD

Haunted Library
* There are multiple levels laid on top of each other, which makes the map confusing
* I started down the first hallway and a Clay Golem charged me. I defeated him without picking up a Cursed Wound, lucky for me
* Continued down the hallway and then went left. There was a fight there, a chest, then another fight and another chest
* Back to the locked door and through it
* Down the hallway to the trapped door and through it to a fight in a big room. I was immediately surrounded by Wraiths. I pulled back to the first hallway and dispatched the Wraiths there. I then went back to the big room and killed the mobs there. I killed the last mob from the edge with my bow soon when the floor collapsed after his death, I could still grab the collectable before jumping down
* Another fight, this time a bad one with several Blackbone Arcane casting Acid and Lightning spells for which I had no resistance. I slugged a couple of Resist potions then I dealt with them
* I went back under where I came in, cleaned out the monsters and grabbed the green key
* I unlocked the door on the far side of the big room
* Down a hallway to a four way intersection. Straight ahead was a shrine (which I didn't need yet). I went left (North), took the left bridge when I got to the big room and came to a big fight
* I threw two levers which opened a gate. I then continued East to several fights and a boss Spectre
* I went back to the four way intersection and went South. I got to a room with some Skeleton Arcus and a funny looking floor. I went into the alcove where the Skeleton Arcus were and when I killed all of them, the floor collapsed. I walked around the edge, got the collectable and went back to the shrine to rest
* Looking back on things, I should have gone South and jumped down there. Instead, I went back North and took the right bridge which led to a broken staircase down. I jumped down
* I went straight after the jump and then lead me to a room with a barrier. I didn't see anyway to get past the barrier so I retraced my steps and took the stairs down again
* Stairs down lead me to a room with an evil altar and two chests. After a brief fight, I purified the altar and opened the chests
* The East side of the room had stairs that lead down to a puzzle. Every time I lit a jewel, 2-3 Wraiths spawned
* A small fight, cleared up a room and rested one last time
* I had a fight in the hallway that lead to a door
* I cast Death Ward and went through the door into a big fight. I couldn't see a thing because of Acid Cloud and was getting mobbed bad. I should have been spamming Paladin Divine Light I and I didn't. I ran out of the room and did a fighting retreat back to the shrine. I was able to pick off the mobs in small groups instead of all at once. I had a tough time getting the focus on the boss Wraith. Eventually, I killed everything
* I went back to the final room and popped all of the chests

I scored Feather Falling Boots in "Haunted Library". The opens up "The Pit" as a possible quest for me, a quest I have never done before.

I swapped out Combat Expertise for Force of Personality. 10k for the Siberys Dragonshard and 7290 for Fred. I wasn't using Combat Expertise and I have been getting hit by Will based spells. For example, in the last battle I got knocked a number of times by Command spells.

Right now, I have Unyielding Sovereignity and don't have Hunter of the Dead I. I don't have enough Action Points for both. I go back and forth and whether I should reset my enhancements to pick up Hunter of the Dead I. Unyielding Sovereignity is clearly better for quests without many undead. The Unyeilding Sovereignity was a major help in the last big fight when my life was getting way down and I was getting pounded. OTOH, maybe if I had Hunter of the Dead I, I wouldn't have been getting pounded so much? I have some more undead quests to do, so I reset my enhancements to:
Rogue Haste Boost I
Human Adaptability Strength I
Human Versatility I
Human Versatility II
Paladin Bulwark of Good I
Paladin Resistance of Good I
Paladin Divine Sacrifice I
Paladin Exalted Smite I
Paladin Extra Lay on Hands I
Paladin Extra Smite Evil I
Paladin Extra Smite Evil II
Paladin Hunter of Dead I
Racial Toughness I
Racial Toughness II
Paladin Devotion I
Paladin Energy of the Templar I
Paladin Charisma I
Ranger Dexterity I
Paladin Toughness I
Paladin Toughness II
Paladin Divine Light I
Paladin Divine Might I
Paladin Extra Turning I
Palading Improved Turning I

The Keeper's Sanctury
* Lots of secret doors, lots of traps and lots of undead
* Down the hallway, through the gate and into a dead end room
* I went through the secret door to the North, cleared the room and pressed the rune
* I went into the newly opened room to the West and then through the secret door to the North. A tough fight there and afterwords, I got one of the scrolls
* Back to the prior room and through the South secret door to get a collectable
* Back to the prior room and through the West secret door to a very large room. Skeletons starting random spawning in the room and I eventually killed all of them
* I went through the Western door on the North wall and cleared out the undead in the room, then threw the switch
* I went through the door in the West wall in the big room and up to the shrine and the secret room behind the shrine to throw the switch there
* I went through the door in the South wall in the big room, grabbed the collectable, went through the East secret door and threw the switch, then through the West secret door to get a scroll
* I went back to the big room and went through the secret door to the West. Fought some Thaarak Hounds after I quickly cast Death Ward. I then popped the chest
* I went through the Eastern door in the North wall of the big room. I fought steadily up the passage and through the secret door. After a big fight, I popped the chest to get a key. I was done with the Western half of the quest
* I went back to the room North of the entrance and then through the Eastern secret door to a big room. An Iron Golem was on patrol and I shot him with my bow from the doorway to draw his attention. I then defeated him in the doorway
* In the big room in front of me are some stairs up to a boss fight. It was a tough one. I threw the switch up there
* I went through the South door to a dead end room. I opened the secret door to the West to get access to the shrine. I then went through the secret door to the South and threw the lever there
* I went back to the big room and then through the door in the North wall and through the secret door to the North to grab the collectable and the journal. I then rested up
* I went through the locked door in the middle of the Eastern wall and was surprised to see a bunch of black puddings. After killing them, I fought down the hallway and eventually popped the chest
* I went back to the big room and then through the Northern door in the Eastern wall. I cast Exp Retreat and sprinted past all of the traps. I fought the faux final boss there and then opened the secret door to the East
* I finally confronted the final boss. It was a tough fight and I went down to around 10 hp. The final boss is a mummy who cursed me, reducing my healing ability. There was a Blade Barrier around us that I didn't want to cross. As we fought, undead spawned and joined us, making the space inside the Blade Barrier very tight. I eventually killed everything and popped the two chests

Caverns of Korromar
* A very big map full of undead
* I cleared out the outside area of undead and talked to the dwarf
* Down in the sewers, it alternated oozes and zombies
* In the room with a sewer below, I went down and cleared out the spider nest. At the back end of the spiders area are the last two zombies and secret door to a locked chest
* Up the ladder and through the door to fight a spider mob
* Up the rope into an immediate undead battle
* I went a little to my left, killed some zombies and then opened a chest to get the gold key
* I wandered around the courtyard, killing undead until all of the undead were killed. I killed the Spectre Adorgar the Grudgebearer. I threw the lever to open the gates and went out the shrine in the outside area and rested
* I went back to the quest entrance and to the West there is a hill. I went up it and kept going on until I reached an aquaduct. At the end of the aquaduct was a flesh render and a chest (need the gold key to open). Another flesh render appeared when I opened the chest
* I jumped down, through the courtyard and out to the excavation
* I fought to the Southernmost excavation site, went in it, defeated a boss flesh render and found the book about the discovery of the codex and then I read the codex
* I fought to the Westernmost excavation site, went in it, found the book about the flame of Turian in a side tunnel, crossed the water and eventually lit the flame
* I fought to the Northernmost excavation site, went in it, defeated a boss Wraith, rested at the shrine in the site, fixed the mirror and then found the book about the philosopher
* I fought to the Easternmost excavation site, went in it,found the book about the uncovering of the altar, killed a boss flesh render and then purified the altar
* I went back to the quest entrance and summoned a level 9 cleric. I then went back to the Easternmost excavation site and rested at the shrine there
* I went pass the altar to the room with the blue force field. I parked the cleric a fair distance from the blue force field. I threw the switch there, jumped down and ran to the end of the tunnel. I parked my cleric there
* I snuck up, right-clicked on the boss Beholder and shot an arrow at him, then dodged to the side
* Some skeletons attacked me and I killed them
* I would sidestep from the archway side, fire an arrow, sidestep to the other side of the archway. Back and forth
* The Beholder got me up to 7 negative levels. Normally, I would have taken a break and let the levels restore themselves, but I needed to go somewhere. I kept going, accidentally bumped into the archway side and was killed by the Beholder. I went back to my cleric and get rezzed
* The Beholder was destroying my arrows at a furious rate, but I eventually killed
* I went into the Beholder's arena and popped the chests

Level 10

Equipment update:* From Korthos, I have the Anger's Gift necklace, the Anger's Step boots, the Ring of Waterbreathing and 2 Bracers of Assistance.
* I have crafted a Tiara of Wizardry II, Blindness Ward Goggles of Battle Skill +1, +2 Lesser Fire Guard Full Plate of Invulnerability, +2 Natural Armor Bracers (soon to add Balance +5 to it), Ogre Power +2 Belt of Lesser False Life, Health +2 Ring of Light Fortification, Unbalancing Ring of Protection +2, a +2 Shock Warhammer of Lesser Undead Band, a Superior Ardor I Maul, a +3 Flaming Kopesh of Lesser Goblinoid Bane, a +2 Ghost Touch Heavy mace of Lesser Undead Bane, a Clever +2 Ring of Power III, a Helm of Persuasion, Striding +10% Boots and a Proof Against Poison Necklace
* The rest of what I usually equip is a Voice of the Master, a Charismatic +3 Cloak or a Cloak of Resistance +2 and Dexterous +2 Gloves
* The items I regularly use to buff are Gloves of Owl's Wisdom (3/rest) and a Necklace of Bull's Strength (1/rest).
* My Rogue skill items are Goggles of Minute Seeing +5, Gloves of Disabling +5, and Utility Vest (DD5, OL5, Dex+2).
* My sneaking item is a Lhor-Tragu's Shadowed Armor (+5 Hide, +5 Move Silently)
* My main weapon sets are a +3 Flaming Kopesh of Lesser Goblinoid Bane with a +3 Adamntine Shield, a +2 Shock Warhammer of Lesser Undead Band with a +3 Adamantine Shild and a +1 Flaming Bow.
* Other weapons and shields I keep for special occasions are +2 Densewood Shield, Muckbane, +1 Seeker Longsword of Pure Good, a +1 Ghost Touch Light Pick of Pure Good, and a Nicked Longsword
* The rest of the items in my inventory are a Lesser Fire Guard Robe of Spearblock, Chiku's Bauble, Visor of the Flesh Render Guards, Feather Falling Boots, a Helm of Haggling +5, Siren's Charm Necklace, Raven's Sight goggles, a Wand of Cure Moderate Wounds and a Wand of Cure Critical Wounds.
* For Thieves' Tools, I have +2 Free Agent
* I have the following Resist potions: 18 Acid, 16 Cold, 12 Electricity, 14 Fire, 10 Sonic, 2 Fire Protection, 1 Sonic Protection, 1 Cold 20, 1 Fire 20
* I have 4 Potions of Remove Curse and wish I had a slew more.
* I have plenty of healing potions and I have a bunch of other potions that I rarely use.

The Sanctum: Quench the Flames
* I died on this quest the first time I did it for three reasons:
#1 I wasn't fighting the mephits smartly. They were surrounding me, so I was hitting and spinning to try to find a way out of the mob. Mephits regenerate, so I wasn't doing any permanent damage. What I needed to do was to concentrate on one Mephit at a time, which isn't easy as other Mephits will get in the way
#2 I didn't bring a cold weapon for this quest which would have done double elemental damage on the Fire Mephits
#3 I didn't properly buff up before the second fight
* I came down the hallway and entered the first room, where I was surronded by a swarm of Mephits
* I went right (West), fought through room and then up the stairs to another Mephit fight. I smashed the summoning fire, which spawn yet another Mephit fight
* Back to the first room and East. There were battles every 10 paces or so. I smahed the summoning fires in the two side tunnels, popped the chest in another side tunnel, then smashed the last summoning fire in the cavern with the fire lake

The Sanctum: Church of the Fury
* I found this quest short and easy
* I went straight through the first room and into the next room. I killed some Driders there and grabbed the collectable
* I continued South and came to the last big room. I walked the edges, killing Fire Reavers and setting the puzzle wheels
* Once I did the fourth wheel, I buffed up and then fought the two bosses at the top of the stairs. They were easy. I then destroyed the Idol of the Fury
* The quest was finished, but I backtracked and grabbed all of the collectables. I had plenty of time to have done this first and possibly get more xp, but I wanted to make sure that I could finish the quest while I still had my House P buffs

At this point, the big hold up for me for crafting is Arcane essences. I can craft a variety of weapons with elemental damage. I could start making shields with a variety of nice buffs. However, I want those to be +3 items and I don't have the Arcane essences to make a +3 enhancement bonus shard. Also, I want to upgrade my skelly basher and my full plate to +3. As for my other equipment, I have all the +2 stat bonuses I want, I am far away from make a +4 stat bonus shard and as all of my stats are even, a +3 stat bonus shard won't do me much good. I am not far from being able to make +7 skill bonus shards, but those take 10 Greater and 80 Lesser essences and I don't have that many.

The Church and the Cult
* An easy quest until the final boss
* Resist Fire, Cold and Electricity are helpful
* I went into the chapel and talked to the priest at the altar. Everyone ran away and then an Arcane Blackbone came out
* I went into the room the Arcane Blackbone came out of, found the secret door and then followed the hallway around. There is a shrine behind a secret door to your right
* I entered the next big room and after a fight, read the Book of Vol
* I went through the East door, went down the long hallway, killed the Ice Mephits in the room and purified the altar. I rested up at the shrine behind the secret door
* Back to the book room and I went West, down the long hallway, killed the Fire Mephits in the room and purified the altar
* I went back to the first shrine behind a secret door and rested
* I went North through the newly opened door and came to a big room. I killed everyone in it
* I buffed, threw the lever to open the gate and then fought the final boss, a Vampire
* The first time I tried fighting the boss Vampire, my plan was to spam Paladin Divine Light I and Divine Secrifice I. However, those didn't significantly damage him and he healed up faster than I could hurt him. I eventually ran out of the quest
* The second time, my plan was to shoot him with +1 Arrows of Undead Bane from my +1 Metalline Composite Longbow. I missed a lot and didn't damage him significantly. I eventually went back to plan #1, that didn't work well enough and I again ran out of the quest
* The third time, I took a hireling, Nimeth Celibel with me for the final battle. With her help, the battle wasn't too bad
* I got a Small Eberron Dragonshard in one of the chests - I think that is the first time I found one inside a chest
* I have been looking forward to the quest reward as this quest has some wonderful named items. However, none of them were in the quest reward list. I took a +4 Heavy Adamantine Shield

The Path to Madness
* A short, fairly straight forward quest that leads to the Xorian Cipher
* I brought a Cleric (Fayden Maeleth) and a Wizard (Yrlbildre Corpsebringer) hireling with me
* I got the Resist Acid, Electricity and Sonic buffs from House P. On Hard, Resist Fire is a must as the casters in this quest spam Cometfall
* Once in the quest, I followed the path. At some point, there is a fork. I went right (East) and killed the Sirens at the end of the path and grabbed the collectable
* I retraced my footsteps back to the fork and went NW
* The vegetation blocked my view, making the fighting difficult
* I fought steadily until I got to the ruined temple
* I charged up the steps and and killed the two bosses
* Lots of mobs showed up after they were dead
* I popped the chest, clicked on the altar, said "Yes" to the warning box and continued to the next quest

The Xorian Cipher
* My plan is to get to the final battle as quickly as possible in order to get there with the House P buffs. Once that is over, backtrack to get all of the optionals
* This quest has weird Chaos Orbs moving around constantly. I tried to avoid them and they were fairly easy to avoid. If I ran into them, they would cast a random spell on me, typically good, but occasionally bad
* In a lot of the hallways, various skeletons will spawn randomly
* Once I entered the quest, I summoned the cleric and parked him with the command to doing nothing
* I went down the hallway, turned left, threw the switch and activated the Charisma rune
* I went West, then North to the end of the Hallway, West again then up a short hallway North leading to the big room. I ignored all the undead on the way. I went to the far side of the altar, waited for all of the Skeletons to catch up to me, then did a Turn Undead, which wiped out most of the skeletons
* I then went up the stairs on the West side and killed the Boneshrieker Harriers there. I then pulled out my bow and killed the Boneshrieker Harriers on the other side. An alternative would have been to cross the invisible bridge (discussed later) to the other side
* I went back downstairs to the NW corner and threw the switch there. I then went North up the hallway and into the little niche on the left side. I listened for music. If I heard music, that meant a Thaarak Hound would show shortly. I heard it, killed him, then killed the mobs in the hallway
* I went South to the big room with the altar and then to the NE corner. I threw the switch there and went North up the hallway, killing everything in the hallway. This hallway is the other place where the Thaarak Hound can spawn
* I threw the lever and went into the room, killed everything but two Boneshrieker Harriers
* I belly-bucked one Boneshrieker Harrier out of the room and North up the hallway until he was on a pressure plate, which is the round raised platform North of the rune light. I parked him there
* The guide I found said to use Boneshrieker Legionnaire for the second set of runes instead of a Boneshrieker Harrier, but in an early run I couldn't position the Boneshrieker Legionnaire very well
* I then went back to the other Boneshrieker Harrier and belly-bucked him out of the room, South down the hallway and around the corner to the West. I then went back up the hallway to the other pressure plate and summoned the cleric. She teleported on top of me. I parked her there. Both floor runes were lit when I left. If I didn't move the Boneshrieker Harrier out of sight of the pressure plate before summoning the cleric, the Boneshrieker Harrier could start shooting at the cleric and then not move
* I went back to the other Boneshrieker Harrier and belly-bucked him across to the NW corner where I threw the switch. I then bell-bucked him North until the end of the hallway and on to a pressure plate. I then stood on the other pressure plate. The barrier fell
* I went down the hallway and up a couple of ramps to a fight around an altar. I went to a barred overlook and peer down to see a switch beneath. I right-clicked on the switch and then clicked on the hireling's activate button. She ran over and threw the switch. I then summoned the hireling up to me. I parked her there as I needed her to do runes later in the quest
* I went through the opened door to a room with a large puzzle. I did the puzzle and a gate opened
* I buffed in preparation for the next fight. Death Ward is a vital buff. The first time I did the next room, I died from too many negative levels. I could never tell who was hitting me with the negative levels. My soulstone was just out of range of the Resurrection Shrine
* I jumped through the gate and Feather Fell down to the room. I killed everything in the room
* North of this room is a shrine. I didn't really need to rest for the healing, but I needed to reset the Death Ward goggles
* I went down the hallway to the East to face three sets of Boneshrieker Harriers standing behind traps. I ignored the traps and killed all of the Boneshrieker Harriers
* From there, my goal was to get to the last room as fast as possible. I went South, killing the randomly spawning Blackbone Skeletons as they spawned until I got to the door to the last room
* I buffed up including another Death Ward cast. The final room had a pack of Thaarak Hounds including a boss Thaarak Hound
* I opened the door, shot someone with my bow and then moved to the side of the doorway. I fought there. That kept me from getting completely surrounded. Also, the boss Thaarak Hound didn't activate and was in the room all by hiself when I killed everyone else. I wish I had tried Bluff to pull mobs one at a time. Retreating back from the doorway would have spawned more skeletons, which I wanted to avoid
* I didn't pop the Eastern chest in the final room as I have more to explore and want max xp
* Time to start activating runes. The first rune is due North of the final room. It was a Charisma rune
* I went to the entrance to the final section to the rune there. I summoned the cleric as it was a Wisdom rune
* I went North to the locked door. I broke it down and then went along the left edge. The floor fell in, but I was able to reach the chest on the far side. I then buffed up and Feather Fell down to kill Deathfang. I popped the chest and got the Green Key. I grabbed the collectable, went up the stairs, ran around the edge to the North side of the room and got the collectable there
* I went back to the hallway with three traps, disarming each of them
* I went to the next room and then to the hallway to the shrine. I summoned the cleric and had her activate the Wisdom rune there
* I went South to the room where that had the 2 Boneshrieker Harriers that I belly-bucked. I popped the chest and got the Gold Key. The Intelligence rune in this room was protected by a force field. The force field will be gone when I come back with the Wizard
* I went back to the room with the altar then North up the West hallway to the lever. I threw the lever and cleared out everything in the room. I popped the chest and got Iron Key
* I went back to the room with the altar, searched for the secret door in the East wall and went through it, grabbed the collectable, searched for the secret door in the East wall and went through that
* I popped the chest in the middle of the room and the chests behind the three doors
* I went back to the room with the altar, went South and then right at the T. I turned left at the end of the hallway and went to the end of that hallway to the final Wisdom rune. I summoned the cleric, had her activate the rune and then dismissed her
* I went back to the quest entrance and summoned the Wizard hireling. I parked him there
* I went North, right and then left to the end of the hallway. I summoned the wizard and had him do the Intelligence rune there
* I went back to the room with the altar. I went up the stairs on the West side. When I exited the stairs, I kept going and walked on an invisible bridge across to the other ledge. Towards the end of the bridge, some Boneshrieker Skeletons spawned. I activated the Charisma rune on the ledge and summoned the Wizard to activate the other rune
* I Feather Fell down into the big room and went up the West hallway to the room where the Iron Key was. I had the wizard activate the Intelligence rune there
* I went up the ramp to the puzzle room and had the wizard do the Intelligence rune there
* I Feather Fell down to the room below and went to the room where the Gold Key was. I summoned the wizard and had the wizard activate the Intelligence rune there
* I went to the final section of the quest and went to the Southwest corner of those hallways to the final rune. I summoned the wizard to activate it
* I went into the final room, popped the final chest and took the Xorian Cipher

The Chamber of Rahmat
* I tried once taking the route DDO Wiki.com suggested, but I couldn't get past the Gnoll camp. Instead, I went straight into the Valley of the False Tombs, looped to the North of the shrine and went NW from there to the quest
* A really hard quest for me with my constantly having to heal with potions and wands. The first part of the quest with the gnolls was much harder for me that the undead-only second half
* The vast majority of the fights were a bunch of mobs hanging out in the hallway
* Once I entered the quest, I grabbed a collectable
* To kill the Guardian Mummies, go up a set of double stairs and the sarcophagus will be in the middle of the top of the stairs. Smash it and a Guardian Mummy pops out. There are sarcophagi at other locations as well
* I really took my time with this quest. I didn't have any House P buffs. Whenever I got a mummy's curse (I had to kill 10 of them), I would just wait it out
* I fought my way to the shrine, smashed some coffins, rested, went North from the shrine and killed the boss there and popped his chest
* I went back to the shrine, went west, killed the boss there and cleared out that area
* I then took the main hallway North, turned right at the T. I smashed the two sarcophagi to finish the Guardian Mummy optional
* I then searched the North wall to find the secret door. I grabbed the collectable and smashed the sarcophagi. In the center of the room is a platform. I chugged a pot of Resist Fire, hopped on it and a Fire Render popped up. I killed him and popped his chest
* I went back to the shrine and rested
* Back up the North hallway and went left this time and North to another T. A couple of tough fights here
* I went right at the T, smashed more sarcophagi and killed more Guardian Mummies. I went North, grabbed a collectable and came into a room with 5 sarcophagi and a unpickable chest
* Smashing the middle sarcophagus spawned Rahmat, who was easy to take down. I popped his chest
* I went back to the other side of the T and smashed the last 3 servants' coffins
* Per here, the Seal of the Soul "will allow you to bypass one of the Djinn fights in the Tomb of the Wizard King"

Reclamation
* I took Fire and Acid Resist buffs at House P
* I then teleported to House K and took the boat from there
* I hiked up the path until I could see down into the digging site. I Feather Fell down to the quest entrance
* This is a quest where everything is stacked on top of each other so the map is of little help
* This quest has 3 big rooms extending off the mine shift with a big fight an optional and a collectable in each
* Once you enter the quest, you have the choice of falling through the hole in the hallway right in front of you and working up from the bottom or going through the doorway to your right and working down from the top. I chose from the bottom up so I would always have access to the shrine
* I found the Duregar Miner and Surveyors to not be a problem. The Duregar Scouts are archers with excellent ranged ability and they hurt. Consequently, I would frequently retreat out of an area to pull the Duregar melees to an someplace where I wasn't getting shot at and killed them there
* Lots of Adamantine Defenders. If I was fighting them and Duregar melees, I targeted them last as they would make the Duregar melees fall down and they didn't do much damage to me
* I fell through the hole and then swam West to the bottom of the ramp
* I followed the ramp up and went through the hallway to the North until it lead to a T. To the left was Scour, a boss Rust Monster and another Rust Monster. I killed them, but they damaged my inventory quite a bit. I crossed to the other side of the T and came to the bottom big room. The optional is destroying the duergar mining supplies. The collectable is up the ramp from the room entrance, all the way to the end. Also, turn the furnance wheel to open the door to the final room
* The middle big room is to the West and the optional is destroying the duergar explosives. A bow is really nice for that! The collectable is in the SE corner on the landing after the first set of ramps. This room has a chest. Also, turn the furnace wheel to open the door to the final room
* The top big room is to the North and is a long hike up from the middle big room. The optional is destroying the duergar water supply. One collectable in an alcove in SE corner of the room. Also, turn the furnance wheel to open the door to the final room
* I went back out to the hallway, went East and around to the entrance. I jumped down the hole again and swam South to the shrine
* I thought I would be smart and pull a few mobs before healing up. I shot one with an arrow and a horde descended on me, killing me. Fortunately, they all went away and let me rez and heal up
* I buffed up but forgot my Resist buffs - huge mistake. Another fight, this time I killed a lot of the mobs, but I eventually died. The best place to fight was on the rock outcrop beyond the shrines were I couldn't get surrounded
* After rezzing again, I killed the Foreman and all of the mobs at the cave entrance
* I went up the ramp and killed the boss Earth Elemental
* I went up the ramp some more to the two chests

Sykros' Jewel
* Take a Ghost Touch weapon with you on this quest
* I got Resist Acid, Electricity and Fire buffs at House P. I also got Jump
* To get there, I followed the advice of DDOwiki.com and hugged the South coast. Jumping and Feather Falling seemed to fastest way to travel. I got the the lighthouse, swam to the SW corner of the map and then followed the coast around. When I got to where I could go up on land, the quest entrance was just up the hill
* Talked to the dying Duergar, then go through the door
* I am searching for two chests with keys in them. They could be in the big room to the West, the big room to the East or in the tunnels in between
* I hugged the right wall. It took me to a collectable and then a big room
* The big room has two levels. I explored the top level and then went down to the bottom level. In the big room, I found a Scrag Shaman guarding a chest that had the other key
* I left the big room, turn right at the T, grabbed a collectable
* At the next intersection, I went South and found a chest with a key. I went back to the intersection and went Right (East)
* At the next intersection, I turned right and went to another big room. I wandered around, grabbed the two collectables on the top level, killed Scrags and reached 40 kills. Some most randomly spawn as I kept killing Scrags well after I hit 40
* I then took the passage way to the South. It lead to a gate, which I opened and a shrine
* I went a little ways up the passage and got into a fight. I went up to the room at the end of the hallway and had another fight. I went back to the shrine and rested
* I went through the right (West) door. That opens to a room with a hole in the floor. I jumped down and fought the boss spider
* I went through the door, up the ladder and into another fight. After the fight, I opened the chest. I exited the room through the North door
* I went through the West door, up the stairs and fought the rest of the kidnappers
* Ataraxia and a chest are through the door to the South
* I had killed all of the Duergar in the quest. I went back to the big room and back to the hallway South that is South of the entrance. It lead to a pool of water
* I dived in, swam a little to the West, popped out and fought a bunch of Spectres. I then claimed the smugglers' gold (which wasn't much)
* I went back to the room where Ataraxia was and went through the North door. I took the ramps and ladders up to the top where there is another collectable. The exit there leads to the top of the Lighthouse. I didnt' credit for finding it. I Feather Fell to the base, killed some Duergar there, tried to cross the broken bridge and then got credit for it

I have started earning Free Agent favor again and I want to get to 150 Free Agent favor ASAP to get the +4 Thieves' Tools, so I am going to run some low level quests:
Necromancer's Doom ELITE
Sacrifices ELITE
Bringing the Light HARD
Bringing the Light ELITE
Protect Baudry's Interests ELITE
Stop Hazadill's Shipment ELITE
Retrieve the Stolen Goods ELITE
Where There's Smoke... ELITE
The Captives HARD
The Captives ELITE
Stealthy Repossession ELITE
The Smuggler's Warehouse ELITE
Walk the Butcher's Path ELITE
The Swiped Signet HARD
Freshen the Air Normal
Freshen the Air HARD
Redfang the Unruled ELITE
Freshen the Air ELITE

That is all the low-level Free Agent quests except Misery's Peak. Misery's Peak takes ~30 minutes, has no collectable, no quest reward and only one chest. It is not worth my time to do.

Next up, getting House Kundarak favor up to 75 to get more bank slots.
The Lair of Summoning HARD
Ruined Halls HARD
The Forgotten Caverns HARD
The Chamber of Insanity HARD

That got me the extra bank slots. I struggled for the choice of my next quest. I have lots of options for House D favor, but the next level of House D favor doesn't get me much. I could run "The Catacombs" on Elite, but I don't want Silver Flame favor and I would like to get some nice items. Doing the Delera chain on Hard is a possibility as there are several quest chain rewards that are appealing. Finishing "Phiarlan Carnival" on Hard has a lot of appeal. Trying "Xorian Cipher" on Hard has a lot of appeal. "Irestone Inlet" on Hard has a lot of appeal.

Stormcleave Outpost
* Being able to do ranged damage is really helpful on this quest as you can see a lot of enemies from a long ways away
* The first third of the quest has lots of space with little value. To get into the quest quickly, go left at the entrance down the ramp, go North up the blasted valley, up the ramp, Northwest from there to some NPC's and then across the bridge to the Outpost. Ask Sergeant Katani d'Deneith about the gate behind her, kill the raiding party, go back across the bridge, talk to the Gate Warden and start the interesting part of the quest
* When you enter the quest, you have three possible routes to take. On the left is a ramp down, in the center is a pillar that makes a bridge across and to the right is a a path
* I took the ramp down, which leads to the bottom of a blasted valley. I could go right (North) or left (West). West leads to a dead end. I think the valley runs North for quite some length. I followed it for a while and killed some scorpions and black wolves. I discovered later that if I had kept on, this would have been a short cut to the XXX with one less fight. Instead, I went back to the entrance
* I went right this time and it lead to a Kobold camp. After I killed them, there was no place further to go. I went back to the entrance
* I went over the pillar across the valley. On the other side is a scorpion nest and then a Minotaur camp
* At the camp, I can go West or North. I went West and came to a Troll camp. Beyond that is a Minotaur camp. The only thing of value in the camps are a few crates to smash
* I went back to the first Minotaur camp and headed North. I came to a stone ramp down to the valley bottom, but keep on the trial. That lead to an Ogre camp
* Continuing North, I came to another bridge and crossed it. I continued North and ran into a pack of wolves feasting on a traveler
* To the Southwest of the wolves is a path. On the first part of the path, there are ramps down on both the South and North sides. The ramp down on the South side goes to the valley that leads back to the entrance. I stayed on the path and went to the camp of 3 Hill Giants. The camp is a dead end
* I retraced my steps and took the ramp down on the North side. It leads down to the bottom of another blasted valley. I went left (West), killed some Minotaurs, found a shrine and talked to some NPC's. They gave background about upcoming subquests. This part was a dead end
* I went East to the ramp. Just North of it I can see a bridge over the valley. I went up the ramp, back to where I fought the wolves and then North to where some NPC's where. I ignored them, went West, crossed the bridge and came to the entrance of Stormcleave Outpost. I explored to the left and right of the entrance and there was nothing. I went up the ramp into the outpost
* Most of the NPC's in the outpost just provide background for upcoming subquests. Asking Sergeant Katani d'Deneith about the gate behind her triggered a battle with the giant's raiding party
* I left the outpost, went across the bridge and to the NPC's in front of a gate. Most of the NPC's just provide background for upcoming subquests. Talking to Gate Warden Ironclaw drops the force field blocking the way to a bridge North
* I crossed the bridge and into a Minotaur camp. Continuing North, I stuck to the right (East) side, came to a Troll camp and eventually a pillar. Clicking on the rune spawned Fire Mephits
* I continued West until I came upon a Troll and two wolves. North of them was a subdungeon entrance. Inside where some Giants and Minotaurs. I went back outside
* Westward to another pillar and a shrine, guarded by a Troll and some wolves. I activated the pillar and killed the Fire Mephits
* To the South of the second pillar is an entrance to the blasted valley that runs Stormcleave Outpost. I went West instead, hugged the right and killed a Giant and a wolf. Continuing West, I came to a ledge with some Hill Giants on it, including the boss Ortador
* On the ledge is 6 crates full of magefire cannon parts. I destroyed them. Next to them was two chests - one contained the Jurmo'ta Shard and the other was a loot chest
* I killed two Minotaurs South of the last crate. West of the ledge is a pillar guarded by Ogres and Minotaurs. I activated the pillar and killed the Fire Mephits
* South of the pillar is a Giant camp with a Supply Crate and a locked chest
* Note: there is no point in gathering the Supply Crates now. It is better to kill everything first including the final boss, then gather the Supply Crates and head back to the outpost
* West from there is a Troll and a wolf, then a shrine. South of the shrine is another pillar. I activated the pillar and killed the Fire Mephits
* To the East of the fourth pillar is a gateway that leads a Troll and Giant camp. They nicely stayed put as I shot them with arrows. In the camp is an amphitheater with a giant head. I will be coming back here
* A little South of there and then to the West is a Giant and Troll camp with the boss Insgadreer. The camp has two chests - one contained the Wul'ta Shard and the other was a loot chest. The camp also had 4 Supply Crates
* I exited the camp East and came to a pillar guarded by Trolls and wolves. I activated the pillar and killed the Fire Mephits
* I left the pillar area and headed South. I came to a ramp with a camp just beyond it. Two Giants were in the camp. After I dispatched them, I headed up the ramp and discovered that it just went around the camp. In the camp was a locked chest and 2 Supply Crates
* From the camp, I could go South or East. I went East. I came across a Kobold camp and I was able to kill all the Kobolds with my bow. In the camp were 2 more Supply Crates
* On the North side of the Kobold camp is a ramp. I took it and it lead to a sub-dungeon that has Trolls and Fire Mephits, including the boss Nuushmaar. I popped Nuushmaar's chest and then rested at the shrine in the cavern. I left the cavern
* South of the camp is a slope leading up to the Fire Giant Pious Grew'el. As I went up the slope, groups of Blackbone Skeletons spawned. When I got to Pious, another group of Blackbone Skeletons spawned. After they were all dead, I opened one chest and got the Vilbu'ta Shard and opened the other loot chest
* I chugged a potion to get my INT to 18 and activated the rune. Fire Mephits spawned and then the dimensional gate went away
* I returned to the camp with two exits and took the one South, went up a ramp, killed some Minotars, came to a camp with a Troll, some wolves and a Supply Crate
* West of the camp was the last pillar, guarded by Minotaurs and Trolls, including the boss Helos. The camp has two chests - one contained the Elsb'ta Shard and the other was a loot chest. I activated the pillar and killed the Fire Mephits
* I went West past the camp and took a different passageway North. I killed some Minotaurs and Trolls handing around, went up a ramp and got 2 Supply Crates
* I went back to the amphitheater with the giant head. I clicked on the head a portal appeared. I went through the portal
* I went down the cave until I saw some Giants. I shot one with my bow and that pulled the rest to me. I killed them. I ran into the big room. There are 2 alcoves on each side. I quaffed a Fire Resist potion and then went to the far right alcove, killed the Earth Elemental, then killed General Xani'lar
* I headed back to the outpost, grabbing Supply Crates as I went. South of the second pillar, I went down into the blasted valley and took it back to towards the outpost. I came to a cliff and jumped down. The valley was empty all the way to the ramp outpost
* I turned in all of the Supply Crates. I then talked to Commander Agrimar Firebrand

I tried "The Path to Madness" and "The Xorian Cipher" on Hard and died in the final battle. I eventually redid "The Xorian Cipher" on Normal so I would have my notes correct on how to solo the quest. That was the second time I broke my rules on this level - the other being to have a hireling for the final battle of "The Church and the Cult".

Level 11

I took my 8th Paladin level. It was tough passing up on Evasion, but getting second level spells and Resist Energy in particular was too good to pass up.

I reset my enhancements just before leveling up. I have come to the conclusion that Unyielding Sovereignty is better the Hunter of the Dead I. Level 8 Paladin had two tasty new enhancements - Paladin Extra Lay On Hands II and Paladin Energy of the Templar II. My enhancements are:
Rogue Haste Boost I
Unyielding Sovereignty
Follower of the Sovereign Host
Human Adaptability Strength I
Human Versatility I
Human Versatility II
Paladin Bulwark of Good I
Paladin Bulwark of Good II
Paladin Divine Sacrifice I
Paladin Exalted Smite I
Paladin Extra Lay on Hands I
Paladin Extra Lay on Hands II
Paladin Extra Smite Evil I
Paladin Extra Smite Evil II
Paladin Extra Smite Evil III
Racial Toughness I
Racial Toughness II
Paladin Energy of the Templar I
Paladin Energy of the Templar II
Paladin Charisma I
Ranger Dexterity I
Paladin Toughness I
Paladin Toughness II
Paladin Divine Might I

I bought a +2 CON tome. The only stats for which I haven't bought a +2 tome are STR and WIS (for which I bought a +1 tome)

I have been using a Full Plate of Invulnerability for quite some time (currently a +2 Lesser Fire Guard Full Plate of Invulnerability). I am switching over to a +2 Fearsome Studded Leather Armor of Invulnerability. Hopefully with Fearsome, I won't be mobbed as much. I don't think Fearsome effects undead, so for undead quests I will switch back to the Full Plate.

I want to get to 75 House J favor to get the Shield of Faith buff. So I did:
The Path to Madness HARD
The Xorian Cipher HARD

The Xorian Cipher HARD left me shaking afterwards. During the final battle, I used 3 Lay On Hands and an Unyielding Sovereignty, but still had to run away to heal. And that was with the final boss not in the fight! I didn't get any Named loot, but I got a ton of essences. I can remember at least one chest that had two sets of essences. Consequently, I went on a crafting binge. Deconstructing took me to level 28 Arcane. I then made an Enfeebling Khopesh of Strength Sapping. I also made +7 Search Goggles. I have tons of Elemental essences, but no real need for them. I would like to make a +3 Shock Longbow of Bleeding, but I don't have the Arcane essences for the +3 nor the Bleed. I will probably use a lot of them to make +6 Potential shards.

I failed trying Desert Caravan several times. I swapped out Power Attack for Combat Expertise and that seemed to help. I decided to change my rule about hirelings to that I can use hirelings in quests when I can't do enough damage to self-healing mobs to kill them.

Desert Caravan
* I died/failed on this quest many times
* You have to defend 6 caravan wagons against Vulkoorian raiders (Scorrow, hyenas and scorpions) for 10 minutes and if 5 wagons are destroyed, you fail the quest
* I could get to between 8-9 minutes before the fifth caravan was destroyed
* I found defending two wagons near the NE or SW valley entrance worked best. Going into the center of the wagons pulled the aggro of scorpions and they hit hard and were hard to kill
* I couldn't kill the Scorrow Pilgrims or Prophets - they healed themselves faster than I could damage them
* There are two sets of shrines in the quest. However, I found it futile to try to rest during the quest as I would constantly be interrupted by mobs. I guess I could have tried running out of sight of camp, then sneaking back to the shrines
* Eventually, I hired the hireling Mikayl the Pious (level 11 Fighter). If we attacked a Scorrow Pilgrim or Prophet together, we could kill it
* When you reach 10 minutes, immediately talk to the NPC and select "End conversation". This completes the quest. If you don't talk to the NPC and the mobs destroy the fifth caravan wagon, you fail. If you take the other dialog choice, you exit the quest without getting the chests
* Once I talked to the NPC, I ran into big problems. The raiders are still fighting and I was out of healing. I tried resting and kept getting interrupted. I eventually ran away from the camp and to an empty section of the valley out of sight of the camp. Unfortunately, some mobs followed me and they killed me and Mikayl
* However, I was able to reach the rez shrine from there. Once I rezzed, I was able to heal some, grabbed Mikayl's stone and then snuck over to the shrines to rest
* Mikayl rezzed, I hit him with same Lay On Hands and then we killed the rest of the mobs hanging around
* I then popped the chests and finished the quest

From Beyond the Grave
* The quest giver is hard to find. Go to the mailbox in House J and then go around the corner as if you are going to go to the collector Verisgante. When you turn the corner, turn around and you will see a ramp that leads upward. Take that ramp and it leads you to a ledge above the mailbox. Go up the stairs and out on top of the archway to Micah d'Jorasco
* I tried to do it by myself and it wasn't even close. The best I did was get one pyre lit. The waves of zombies are too frequent and the time to lit the pyres is too long
* I tried again with the hireling Mikayl the Pious (level 11 Fighter) and I didn't do any better
* I tried it again with the hireling Althas the Dour (level 11 Sorcerer) and got close. The problem was that the skeletons kept spawning around the Southernmost pyre and they would interrupt me as I tried to light it
* I tried again with Althas the Dour. This time, I had Althas summon an Elemental, lit the Northernmost pyre first, lit the Western pyre, ran back to the gate and had Althas summon another Elemental. I lit the Eastern pyre and ran back to the gate. I then killed the skeletons around the the Southernmost pyre, started lighting the pyre, summoned Althas to me and he killed the skeletons when they spawned
* Once the four pyres were lit, I ran back to the gate for the final boss battle
* Once the final boss was dead, I walked over to the two treasure chests and got surprised by some skeletons that spawned. Fortunately, I wasn't low on life and was able to handle them easily

In the last quest, I got a Deathblock outfit, which gives me some confidence to take on Beholders

That was it for Short and Medium quests. All of the rest of the quests are Long or Very Long.

Hiding in Plain Sight
* You have a long swim in this quest, so Waterbreathing is helpful
* I tried this quest at level 10 with a Full Plate of Invulnerability and the Power Attack feat, really struggled and died while fighting Hazadill. I did it again when level 11 with the +2 Fearsome Studded Leather Armor of Invulnerability and the Combat Expertise feat and did much better
* Resist Cold, Electricity and Fire are useful buffs
* Metalline or Adamantine weapons are helpful for fighting Adamantine Defenders
* There are MANY explosive barrels to destroy, so take a returning throwing weapon or lots of arrows/bolts
* There are numerous traps on the DDOWiki map that aren't in effect
* I started in the warehouse from "Protect Baudry's Interests"
* I went down a hallway that made a U. Halfway through the U are two traps. I stayed to the left side to avoid the first trap and ran through the second trap. The trap box on the far side of the second trap disarmed the first trap. I then climbed up the boxes to avoid the second trap while getting back to its trap box, which is in the middle of the first trap. I disarmed it. I continued North and into a fight
* I continued North and at the T, I went right and into a fight
* Down the hallway West to an intersection. I went North up the hallway. When I turned the corner, there was a fight. Round the next corner and another fight
* At the end of that passage is a secret door. I opened it into another fight
* Behind the secret door is a lot of smashables and a chest
* I retraced my steps to the intersection. I went West until the hallway comes to a little zag North and had another fight
* Down to the end of the hallway and then North. A spinning blade trap started up. I went to the alcove on the left and disarmed it, then went across the hallway to throw the switch
* I went North, then West and North again to just South of the shrine. There was an ambush where some Arum casters released some Adamantine and Mithral Defenders. I ran back out of the range of the casters and killed the Defenders. I then went forward to the Arum casters and killed them
* I came to the shrines, but didn't rest
* The hallway to the West is optional. It recreates the second half of "Information is Key". I was coming to the first trap on the DDOWiki map when I got hit by a big ambush. The floor was watery, so I couldn't move very well. I ran far, far away, killed the melees there and then came back and killed the caster
* I threw the valve to open the gate, went South to the recreation of the end of "Information is Key". Up the ladder to turn the two valves, then a swim West to get the collectable and throw the last valve, then back up the ladders and up the hallway
* The room at the end has a fight. I hid behind the section of the wall to the left of the secret door to the room and fought there for a little bit. Eventually, I killed everyone. The room has a collectable and some secret plans, which is an optional
* I went back to the shrine, rested, threw the switch and went North
* A little ways North is a valve that releases some Mithral Defeners. Just North of it is a Poison Venom trap. I went across the hallway to disarm the trap and more Mithral Defenders attacked me
* I went North. Near the T, I heard sounds of battle up ahead. It was some bad guys fighting an ooze. They killed the ooze and then fought me
* I continued West into the first half of "Information is Key". I went up the ladder, threw the lever and had a fight. I then there the lever and went up the hallway to a very tough fight with a red boss. I grabbed the collectable
* I retraced my steps to the T and then headed East. After a little bit was a poison trap, which I disarmed
* I continued on through the sewers, grabbed a collectable, headed back West and came to a dry area with an alcove to the South. I went into the alcove and turned the valve, which opened a secret door to the North
* Just on the other side of the secret door is a spike trap. Jumping to the right edge of the hallway got me past it and then I disarmed it
* That took me to a 4 way intersection. I went left and there was nothing. I smashed the stuff around the intersection. The way North is blocked. I headed East
* I would slash a web, fight some spiders, slash a web, fight more spiders, etc. until I came to a 4 way intersection. I went straight, but my way was blocked by a gate with two signal crystals
* I returned to the intersection and went South, fought through a bunch of spiders and threw a lever
* Back to the intersection and then North. I fought through more spiders and threw a lever
* Back to the intersection and then East through the gate. I threw a switch and looked down a hole to water. I ran back to the shrine and rested, then came back to the hole
* I cast Waterbreathing and jumped in. There were lots of spinning blade traps. I didn't bother trying to time them - I just swam for it to the end. Near the hole with the ladder that leads out is a valve that turns off the spinning blades
* Up the ladder and I was in a little room. I went through the door and I was in a long hallway. Darts were shooting down the hallway, so I stayed to the right. When I got to the end of the hallway, there was a fight but I made the mobs stand in the dart trap. I disarmed the dart trap
* I went West and in an alcove to the left was a valve protected by two traps. I disarmed them and turned the valve. It opened a secret door to the North. I went North and threw the valve to open the gate. I had a fight right at the gate
* I went left and had a fight. I threw the lever and destroyed all of the explosives beyond the gate with my returning throwing dagger
* On the East side of the harbor room there are two doors and a ladder in the niche in between Hazadill is up the ladder with 3 other bosses - 2 melees and 1 caster
* I was able to kill the caster pretty quick, but had problems with kill the other bosses because of their self-healing
* 2 of the bosses disappeared and it was just me and Hazadill. I run out of healing and decided to run, jumping over the balusters. I ran and swam back to the shrines and rested
* I came back to the ladder and the two bosses who had disappeared reappeared there! They hit me, got scared, I killed one and the other ran off, never to be seen again
* I went back up the ladder and killed Hazadill. I popped the two chests
* I went down the ladder, smashed open the North door, killed some mobs there and opened a chest
* I smashed through the South door and killed the Aurum caster there

The Chamber of Kourush
* Very similar to "The Chamber of Rahmat"
* I didn't have as much trouble with the Gnolls in the front part of the quest
* The Menechtarun Ghasts tore me up quite a bit and were very plentiful
* Looking at the map on DDOwiki.com, the second shrine can appear in many different locations
* When I got close to Kourush's sarcophagus, the DM announced something like he was shambling towards me. He wasn't. He was inside his sarcophagus

Purge the Fallen Shrine
* I had planned on running to it like I had others. Turned out I needed to Feather Fall to the bottom of the canyon and then run into the canyon until I stumbled across the entrance
* Fire Resist is essential
* This was a series of mobs hang out in the hallway
* I was concerned about overcoming mob DR. Divine Sacrifice was really helpful as nobody had DR to light
* Frost did double damage to the Fire Mephits, Fire Reavers and Pyrodemons
* Cacodemon were vulnerable to Bleed
* The Efreet battle was confusing as it cast some kind of mist or something and I couldn't see very well. I concentrated on killing the Efreet and then killed his minions

I found a Medium Eberron Dragonshard Fragment in the "Purge the Fallen Shrine". I sell the Smalls as soon as I get one, but I think I will hold on to this one

When I get enough Arcane and Body essences, I will try to make a +3 Telekinetic Khopesh of Bleeding. My crafting levels right now are 28 Arcane, 23 Divine and 25 Elemental.

For a break, I ran some short, quick quests:
Kobold Assault HARD
The Depths of Darkness HARD
The Depths of Discord HARD
The Depths of Doom HARD

I tried "Raid the Vulkoorim" and died (see below). It was the first quest where I noticed that the mobs ignored Invulnerability. The Scorrow regularly cast debuffs, which would make casting Angelskin pointless. I had two choices of what I could do with my limited crafting resources: (1) craft a +1 Fearsome Studded Leather of Axeblock to provide DR when fighting the Scorrow or (2) craft a +3 Axiomatic Khopesh of Bleeding to improve my offense when fighting Scorrow. I went with #1 as (a) I had enough essences to make it and not enough to make #2 and (b) I thought the improved DR would have a much larger effect than my improved damage. Making the +1 Fearsome Studded Leather of Axeblock really depleted my Arcane Essences, so probably be a while before I can make another +3 enhancement bonus shard, which means it will be a while before I make another Khopesh.

Raid the Vulkoorim
* Like "Desert Caravan", I had problems with Scorrow self-healing. I switched to TWF when facing a Vulkoorim Prophet as they self-healed faster than I could damage them when fighting S&B
* There are 6 sets of two levers that have to be thrown at the same time. I couldn't get them to work by myself and had to use a hireling
* I didn't sprint to this quest. Instead, I followed the suggested path on DDOwiki.com and didn't have many fights on the way
* During the first part of the quest, I wandered down a long, curvy hallway and fought 2-3 Scorrows every 20-30 paces
* Eventually, I got to a three way intersection
* I went right (West) and killed the Gnolls. They were in a hallway then in three alcoves. Two of the three alcoves had a chest
* I went back to the intersection and headed South
* After much fighting, I came to an area with three alcoves and lots of scorpions. Each alcove has a cube of blue light
* On the back side of each cube are two levers, I threw them and killed the Spawn of Vulkoor
* I went back to the intersection headed East
* Gloom's Huntress and two Vulkoorim Prophet tore me up, I was a little slow hitting the Unyielding Sovereignity and I went unconscious. Fortunately I stabilized while they were away from me
* I healed up and tried again. This time I killed them all
* I had a tough time hitting the Spawn of Vulkoor and eventually turned off Combat Expertise to improve my to hit
* I came very close to having my hireling be killed by the Spawn of Vulkoor, which would have required me to redo the quest
* I killed the remaining Spawn of Vulkoor, finishing the quest

I got quite a bit of essences and favor in not a lot of time, so I decided to get all of my level 3 quests up to Elite:
The Friar's Niece ELITE
To Find a Witness: Return to the Sanctuary ELITE
The Old Archives ELITE
The Crypt of Gerard Dryden ELITE
Setting the Wards: The Lower Cathedral ELITE
Setting the Wards: The Patriarchs' Crypt ELITE (I had a tough time with Marguerite)
Endgame: Marguerite ELITE
Endgame: The Archbishop's Fate ELITE (Got a cloak that casts False Life 3/rest)
Kobold Assault ELITE
First Strike ELITE
The Hobgoblins' Captives ELITE
The Kobold's Den: Clan Gnashtooth ELITE
The Kobold's Den: Rescuing Arlos ELITE

All of my level 1-3 quests are at Elite except "Misery's Peak". All of those quests took me up to 829 total favor. While deconstructing loot from those quests, my Divine crafting hit 24, so I crafted a Telekinetic shard then a +3 Axiomatic Khopesh of Bleeding. I also made a Ring of Resistance +2. All that crafting took my Divine up to level 25.

The Claw of Vulkoor
* A quest with a great story and a lot of sneaking. It is easy to fail on this quest and I failed many times. I had problems sneaking with a 15 Hide and a 13 Move Silently. I was able to do it with a 20 Hide and a 15 Move Silently and a scroll of Invisibility
* At House P, I got buffs for Jump and Cat's Grace in addition to my usual buffs
* I dashed to the quest just like the last one
* After defeating the wizard Fire Giant, I came to a cave with two Fire Giants and a lever
* South of the lever is a hidden door revealing another Fire Giant and a lever. You don't need to go through that door
* To the East of the lever is another secret door behind which is a lever. You do want to go through that door, throw the lever, jump down the revealed hole and kill the rest of the Fire Giants
* After I defeated the Fire Giants, I shrined up. I then activated the octagon, which opened a secret door to a big room with lots of scorpions
* From here, my goal is to sneak past 7 big scorpion guardians and a bunch of small scorpions
* In the back (Southern) part of the room is a big green plantish thing. I want to Feather Fall down to its base. I entered the room, let two roamer scorpions come and go, and headed towards the big green plantish thing. There is a very slight rock ramp from which I jumped down into the hole. When I didn't have Feather Falling boots, I hugged the right wall and got to a spot where I wasn't visible to the scorpions. I cast Feather Fall there, resneaked and then jumped. As I have them now, I just snuck up the ramp and jumped down
* I landed on the bridge halfway down and then jumped again to the base of the big green plantish thing and grabbed the clam collectable there
* From the big green plantish thing, I snuck forward. Scorpion guardian #1 is easy
* Scorpion guardians #2 and #3 were a little more difficult because I had to sneak past a roaming scorpion each time
* Unlike the first three which very nicely stand still, scorpion guardian #4 patrols a path which comes right towards as you leave #3. The first few times I saw him, I thought he had already seen me because he was moving towards me and I walked right into him
* To get past #4, I hid at #3's archway. Once #4 turned around, I snuck up the left (green) path. At the end of the path there are some stalagtites blocking progress. When #4 went by me again, I snuck to the other side of the stalactites. When #4 went by again, I snuck to his octagon
* #5 is straight forward
* After #5 to the left is a lever and a door. Behind the door is a shrine and 3 Fire Giants. One time, I decided to throw the lever and kill the Fire Giants. I had no problem with the Fire Giants. However, a little scorpion sneaked up on me while I was fighting the Fire Giants and it killed me in no time
* Past #5, I cast Invisibility on myself as the next section is really tough. The path forks and there is a scorpion that is pretty difficult to get past walking there. Go right at the fork and jump across a small gap
* I sneaked past a roaming scorpion, up a ramp and at the right moment, threw a throwing axe at a breakable (see this video, about 7:45). The guardian scorpion scooted over to the broken vase, allowing me to sneak by him
* After that, I killed a Fire Giant who was lost in thought about his last date
* Past him, I did some jumping up and over a lake of lava (with an earlier toon, I missed the jump several times and died)
* I jumped down from there and the jumped up on a switch, threw it, ran into the next room, threw the switch there (I had no problem with this)
* This opened the burial chamber. I could have I walked through to a secret door and through that, but I was greedy. I opened a chest, which summoned a giant skeleton. After I killed him, I opened the other chest, smashed everything, grabbed the collectable and searched the piles of gold
* For the last guardian scorpion, I crept up to the right of the white rock pillar to the right of the guardian scorpion. Once there out of the guardian scorpion's sight, I turned off Auto-targeting (hit the "G" key) and threw something at the other side of the hallway. The guardian scorpion came out to the space between the two white rock pillars. I sneaked past him
* I sneaked on to the end of the quest and popped the two chests there

Into the Deep
* A very long quest
* I took my new X on it. Turns out that it Axiomatic doesn't work on the S
* I took my time getting to the dungeon entrance as I wasn't sure how to get there. I then rested before going in
* I always had Resist Cold and Electricity cast
* Upon entering the water area, I talked to Ni Sek to get his optional quest
* I entered, went SE to get all of the collectables and then entered the Eastern dungeon
* No map for the inner dungeons. I wandered through the tunnels, found a collectable behind a waterfall and eventually came to a room with stairs
* I went up the stairs, killed everything around, grabbed the collectable, went up the second set of stairs, came back down to the second level, entered a tunnel and followed it around to the shrine where I rested
* I talked to the rebels, stepped on to the metal grate and dropped down below
* There was a mutant Scrag in a magic bubble. The bubble eventually went away and I killed him
* When he died, a magic barrier dropped and I could get to the Sahuagin mage
* After I killed the Sahuagin mage, I smashed the Imprisoned Heart of Water to free the Water Elemental
* I then ran around smashing stuff, popped the chest, looted the piles of gold, grabbed the collectable, rested at the shrine, then took the back way out
* I headed West, killing Sahuagin while grabbing Sea Paws and collectables. I entered the Royal Temple
* I talked to the Drow at the entrance, smashed stuff, stepped on the gate and went down
* In the main room, there is an alcove along the South wall. The lever to the gate is just beyond it. I cleared that
* I went up the stairs and cleared the three alcoves up there
* I went back down, grabbed the collectables on the South and North wall. I freed all of the Drow, went through the secret door behind the altar and talked to the Drow
* I went through the West tunnel, wandered around and grabbed a collectable. Just South of the collectable is an alcove whose back is a secret door. Opening it reveals a chest and another collectable
* I continued on, got to the shrine room, grabbed the collectable and then rested
* I talked to the rebels, stepped on the grate and fell down into the battle
* I tried smashing the Imprisoned Heart of Water to free it, but there were too many mobs attacking me. I killed all of them, then freed the Imprisoned Heart of Water
* I then ran around smashing stuff, popped the chest, looted the piles of gold, rested at the shrine, then took the back way out
* I swam on, grabbing collectables and Sea Paws. I turned in the Sea Paws, didn't intimidate and got a Wand of Cure Moderate Wounds
* I swam around for a while, killing loyalist forces. Once they were dead, I went North to the Palace
* Inside the palace, the Rebels have the palace hallways under the controls. I wandered around, smashing stuff until I came to the one-way grate. I buffed up and stepped on it
* In the fight, there is a floor with two high walls on each side. There are guards down on the floor and guards throwing spears up on the walls
* I helped the rebels kill the guards on the floor, more jumped down, eventually Scrag were released. After the Scrag were dead, the gates went up and I could kill the priestess
* I popped the chests and looted the piles of gold
* I tried fighting the demon, but it didn't go well. I tried different weapons and it was immune or had DR to all of them. The +3 Axioimatic Khopesh of Bleeding seemed to work best. I should have switched to Hammerblock armor as it ignored my Invulnerability. I wasted a lot of time trying different weapons, didn't damage it much and got killed

I crafted a Cursespewing Long Bow. I was thinking of adding Bleed to it, but I don't have a lot of Body Essences. Fortunately, it doesn't need a enhancement bonus as I will be using +3 Deneith Arrows with it. The idea is to curse opponents I am about to fight and to curse opponents who are running away because of Fearsome.

Maruad the Mines
* Be sure to be able to do damage from a distance as there are many mobs on perches
* Fire resistance is huge as they cast lots of fire spells
* Axiomatic worked very well in this quest
* I basically explored the complex and smashed storage bins to get different uncut gems
* I entered at the top of a large cave. I went down the ramps to the the Southern tunnel. I followed it around to a big room with a big mound in the middle. I hopped up to the top of the mound and fought the big boss. There are lots of archers around shooting as well as casters. I took them all down. This section had the Jacinths
* I was chewed up pretty bad after that fight, so I went to the shrine and rested
* I went back down the ramp to the South and then turned East. I cleared out that complex and got the fire opals
* I went back to the main cave and ran around, trying to figure out to enter the other tunnels. I eventually got to the Western tunnel complex
* I cleared out the complex - nothing very hard and got the black irons. When I was going to the SE alcove, I was surprised by some Huge Rust Monsters
* I finally found the tunnel to the Eastern tunnel complex and I cleared it out, gathering uncut rubies
* The second chest was there. I popped it and finished the quest

I have enough experience to level up, but I am going to keep going. I am going to do "The Spawn of Whisperdoom", which is the last level 11 quest I am going to do this level. I am thinking about doing a lot of questing at this level after that - doing some level 9 quests on Hard and doing lots of low level quests on Hard and Elite. The level 9 quests are for the hope of useful named items and the low level quests are for favor and essences.

I bought a +2 STR Tome. I have only a +2 WIS tome to buy and I have already bought a +1 WIS tome.

The Spawn of Whisperdoom
* A very long and very boring quest. I died fighting the final boss and have no desire to try again
* Acid Resist is vital as the spiders spam acid attacks. An item of Acid Resistance is very useful for the last battle as Whisperdoom will dispel spells
* The Ogre Magi cast fire and cold attacks
* The quest starts in an outdoor area filled with Ogres and Worgs. I killed them, rested at the shrine and then entered the quest proper
* I came to a T with a door protected by a force field to my left. I went right to another T. I went right (South) to a door
* Behind the door is the Village. It is one long hallway leading to an eventual boss battle. One of the chests has the key to the first door
* I rested at the shine in the Village and made the long hike back to the second T. I went North to the Hatchery complex
* In the Hatchery are lots of spiders, Ogre and Ogre Magi. When I killed all 7 of the Ogre Magi, the force field on the door dropped
* I killed all of the spiders and Ogres in the Hatchery
* I went back to the Village and rested at the shrine there
* I went through the initial door and wandered around killing spiders. I went North initially to find the shrine. I then went to the 2 secret doors, opened them and got the loot
* On my way to the third secret door, I came across Whisperdoom. I used up 3 LoH's and an Unyielding Sovereignity while fighting her and didn't damage her much. She killed me
* Checking her DDOwiki page, I don't see how I can damage her much

Crafted weapons and armorI have been experimenting with a variety of crafted weapons and armor. Here are my thoughts so far:Bleed - by far, the most useful weapon suffix. Almost everything but Undead bleeds. Even Earth Elementals bleed. I have this on most of my weapons. Sadly, it is a huge drain on my Body Essences and I am going to start using Maiming so I can make other shards that use Body EssencesAxiomatic - Does 2-12 damage against Bugbears, Giants, Gnolls, Ogres, Scorrow and Trolls. As those are common enemies, it has been very useful. When I encounter a new enemy, a pull it out and give it a swing. Will probably go into storage once I can make HolyFearsome - I love having this on my armor as I am less likely to get mobbed. I get surrounded, the mobs swing at me and then some of the run away. The effect is highly variable - some mobs don't seem too bothered by Fear and some run away and seem to never come backCursespewing Longbow of Backstabbing +2 - A really nice compliment to Fearsome armor. I get surrounded, some mobs run away, I kill those around me and then I pull out this bow. The Backstabbing seems to work as I don't have the aggro of the Afraid mob and the curse works pretty reliably. The curse should make mobs less effective when they do come back to attack me. It also works well for sniping at mobs that I can see but haven't seen me yetTelekinetic - So far, a flop. What is should do is trip my opponents (DC17 Balance check) on a critical hit. I have tried it some and only one mob has tripped. I will test it some more, but it isn't looking good

Level 12

I took my 9th Paladin level. I keeping bumping back my second Rogue level. I decided to bump it this time for three reasons: (1) With level 8 Resist Energy, I am not taking that much elemental damage so I am not feeling the need for Evasion and (2) waiting on the Rogue level helps to keep Search and Disable Device maxed and (3) while level 9 Paladin has almost nothing to offer in terms of feats, spells and enhancements, level 10 Paladin has two very sweet enhancements in Divine Might II and Exalted Smite II.

For my feat, I took Improved Two Weapon Fighting. What I actually did was just before leveling up, I swapped out Improved Critical: Slashing Weapons for ITWF and then took IC:Slashing. I am concerned that my AC is going to be not worthwhile by level 13-14 and I want to be able to swap out IC:Slashing for GTWF.

I took my stat bump in Charisma. I need to take a stat bump in Charisma at some point to get Divine Might III and now seems like a good time.

I reset my enhancements just before leveling up. I have come to the conclusion that Unyielding Sovereignty is better the Hunter of the Dead I. Level 8 Paladin had two tasty new enhancements - Paladin Extra Lay On Hands II and Paladin Energy of the Templar II. Here are the additional enhancements from my last level up:
Paladin Resistance of the Good I
Paladin Devotion I
Paladin Charisma II
Paladin Extra Turning I

Equipment UpdateBefore I discuss my equipment, I must confess I made a mistake. My plan was to make a +3 Holy Warhammer of Lesser Undead Bane; take Paladin Improved Turning I and Hunter of the Dead I instead Paladin Devotion I, Paladin Energy of the Templar II and Ranger Dexterity I; and then run the undead quests. I made the Holy and the Lesser Undead Bane shards, then discovered I didn't have enough Arcane essences to make the +3 Enhancement shard. So I went with the above enhancements and decide to run different quests.

* From Korthos, I have just the Ring of Waterbreathing
* I usually have equiped the following items that I crafted: Charismatic +2 Tiara of Wizardry II, Blindness Ward Goggles of Battle Skill +2, +3 Fearsome Studded Leather Armor of Invulnerability, Health +2 Belt of False Life, Ring of Resistance +2, Natural Armor Bonus +2 Ring of Light Fortification
* The rest of what I usually equip is Siren's Charm, Voice of the Master, a Charismatic +1 Cloak of Protection +3, Dexterous +2 Gloves, Ogre Power +4 Bracers and Hobnail Boots
* My main weapon sets are: a +3 Acid Khopesh of Bleeding (crafted) with a +5 Adamantine Shield (found), a +3 Shock Warhammer of Lesser Undead Bane (crafted) with a +5 Adamantine Shild, a +3 Axiomatic Khopesh of Bleeding (crafted) with a +5 Adamntine Shield, Muckbane with a +2 Densewood Shield (found), and a Cursespewing Composite Longbow of Backstabbing +2 (crafted)
* With Combat Expertise on, my AC is 40 and my To Hit Bonus is 18. With Combat Expertise off, my AC is 35 and my To Hit Bonus is 23
* My Rogue skill items are Goggles of Minute Seeing +7 (crafted), Gloves of Disabling +5, (found) and Utility Vest (DD5, OL5, Dex+2).
* My sneaking items are Lhor-Tragu's Shadowed Armor (+10 Hide, though it says +5 Hide, +5 Move Silently) and Boots of Silence +5
* The items I regularly use to buff are Gloves of Owl's Wisdom (3/rest), Ring of Aid (3/rest), Cloak of False Life (3/rest), Charismatic +2 Cloak of Eagle's Splendor (3/rest), Goggles of Expeditious Retreat (3/rest), Visor of the Flesh Render Guards (Death Ward, 1/rest), Goggles of Protection from Energy: Sonic (3/rest)
* Weapons and armor that I have crafted that I use for special occasions: Superior Ardor I Maul of Healing Lore, +3 Telekinetic Khopesh of Maiming, +3 Flaming Kopesh of Lesser Goblinoid Bane, +2 Ghost Touch Heavy Mace of Lesser Undead Bane, Strength Sapping Khopesh of Enfeebling, +3 Shock Silver Light Pick, +2 Lesser Fire Guard Full Plate of Invulnerability, +1 Fearsome Studded Leather Armor of Axeblock
* Weapons and armor that I have found that I use for special occasions: Battered Phiarlan Shield, +1 Flaming Longbow, +4 Light Mace, +1 Adamantine Returning Throwing Dagger, +1 Metalline Heavy Mace of Slowburst, +1 True Law Composite Longbow of Greater Chaotic Outside Bane, +1 Matalline Light Mace, +1 Seeker Longsword of Pure Good, +1 Thundering Shortsword of Pure Good, Nicked Longsword, Lesser Fire Guard Robe of Spearblock, Deathblock Outfit of Touch of Idiocy, Robe of Winter
* Other crafted items I use for special occasions: a Clever +2 Ring of Power III, a Ring of Persuasion, a Ring of Bluff +7, Striding +10% Boots, a Proof Against Poison Necklace
* Other items I have found that I use for special occasions: Raven's Sight goggles, Sacred Band, Feather Falling Boots, Chiku's Bauble, Shimmering Pendant, a Helm of Haggling +5, a Wise +1 Helm of See Invisibility, various wands and potions
* For Thieves' Tools, I have +4 Free Agent

I tried "An Offering of Blood", but got killed by Darkstinger. I started "And the Dead Shall Rise..." and had to quit to do RL stuff. Sometimes Invulnerability is effective and sometimes it isn't. When I run quests, I am going to have to pay attention to if my DR is being effective.

For a lot of the quests at this level, I want to have some additional equipment before attempting:
An Offering of Blood - an Open Lock item (my OL armor takes too long to equip)
And the Dead Shall Rise... - A Hammerblock shield
Dreams of Insanity
The Enemy Within - a Byeshk weapon
Made to Order - an Anarchic weapon
A Relic of a Sovereign Past - a +5 Longbow
Diplomatic Impunity - a +5 Longbow
Eyes of Stone
Frame Work - a +5 Longbow

I haven't been doing wilderness areas, but the Sands of Menechtarun has some appealing named items, so I have been killing the rares. I did a run into the Undead area and then into the Drow area. I killed Thumok the Mad, Workan-Kull, Utach Sandcrawl and Volrune the Curate. It took me about an hour. The one named item I found was the Vulkoorim Pendant, which has no appeal for me and not much of a market value. Sigh.

I tried "Dreams of Insanity" twice and both times was killed by a boss Beholder

I have been doing a lot of playing but not completeing any quests, so I did "The Church and the Cult" on Hard. I needed a hireling to complete it before (on Normal), but I had a silver weapon this time. I used a ton of Divine Sacrifices and kept whittling away at him and killed him with quite a bit of healing left. I got trash for the finds/quest reward.

I reset my enhancements, taking Paladin Improved Turning I and Hunter of the Dead I instead Paladin Devotion I, Paladin Energy of the Templar II and Ranger Dexterity I. I made a +3 Dex gloves to keep by Dex at 20. Then I ran:And the Dead Shall Rise...
* Having a Feather Fall item is vital. Resist Acid and Electricity are good buffs, but not necessary until the final battle. Resist Cold for the last battle. Jump potions or spells are helpful.
* A Ghost Touch weapon is really helpful as there are lots of incorporeal undead
* Hammerblock and Spearblock are very useful as all of the mobs except Mummy Wardens penetrate Invulnetability. Spearblock for skeletons and Hammerblock for zombies and incorperal undead
* Mummy Wardens have 50% DR, so Divine Sacrifice is a good way of damaging them
* The map isn't too helpful because the quest is climbing many identical floors in a tower
* I stepped into a big room and fought some incorporeal undead. I then smashed some sarcophagi
* Apparently many of the traps will randomly appear in certain locations, so you might have different experience with traps than I do
* If you cast Turn Undead on the fountain, you will get 4 Tears of Dol Arrah. If you use it on the ritual altars in room, it will kill the nearby skeletons or turn the nearby zombies into skeletons. However, I don't think you can get max xp if you use the Tears
* I went up the stairs and entered a hallway with sarcophagi. They have Mummy Wardens in many of them. Some bats attacked me - I hate bats! I continued down the hallway, smashing and killing
* The next room had skeletons - Eternal Warrior and Frostmarrow Shambler. Their attacks went through my Invulnerability DR. There was a ritual altar in the room that I used the Tear of Dol Arrah on to kill all the skeletons
* Along the North wall of this room is a secret door. Behind it is a bunch of Mummy Wardens and nothing of value
* I left that room and went down the next hallway. More incorporeal undead and bats. I smashed the door and came to a landing above the big room. I smashed another door and came to another hallway lined with sarcophagi
* Next room had more skeletons and another altar. This room had an acid trap across the doorway that has its box inside the room. The west wall of this room had a secret door with a chest behind it
* I left the room and went down the sarcophagi-lined hallway. At the end of hallway were some skeletons. I put on my Lesser Fire Guard Robe of Spearblock and got some DR. I am up to 60 breakables smashed
* Through the door and on to another landing, up the stairs and through the next door to another sarcophagi-lined hallway with incorporeal undead and skeletons at the end
* Into another room with an altar and an acid trap. This room had zombies that as soon as I killed them, spawned a skeleton. A secret door in the East wall of this room hid a shrine, which I didn't use yet
* I fought my way down another hallway to another door which should lead to a landing. I was really surprised with a Gelatinous Cube was on the other side. I switched to Muckbane and killed it
* On the landing was a nasty trap - whirling blades in front of a drop to the bottom of the big room and an air jet to blow me into it. I drank a potion of Jump and jumped over the air jet, then disarmed the trap
* Down another hallway to a room. I could see Zombies through the door. Yet more zombies that morphed into skeletons on death. Nothing interesting in the room
* I opened the door out of the room and another set of traps - whirling blades in front of an air jet. I jumped over the air jet and disarmed the trap
* Down the hallway, through the door and, much to my surprise, into the throne room. The were three thrones and no apparent way out. I went back to the shrine and rested, then returned to the throne room. I put on my Featherfall boots and buffed up before touching a throne, which teleported me to Validus' chamber
* I started fighting Validus and the floor started disappear as I did, I fell throw the floor and floated the most of the way down
* I went back up to the throne room, buffed again and touched a throne. Once again I was teleported to Validus' chamber, but now there was no floor. I pullede out my bow and killed Validus from the niche I was standing in
* Don't hit that Finish button! From the niche, I floated to the West side of the tower and landed on a landing. Fought a Dread Wraith, smashed some stuff, smashed the door and killed Prince M'Dab
* When I popped the chest, Mummy Wardens smashed out of their sarcophagi, scaring me. I killed them
* From there, I went to a break in the banister and tried to float across to the landing opposite me. I failed and floated to the bottom. I went down a new staircase and a boss and two Mummy Wardens spawned. I popped the two chests. I went threw the secret door behind the chests, disarmed the trap and popped the chest to the the Calliphor's Phylactery
* I hiked back up to Validus' room and floated down to the landing right beneath me. Behind a secret door can be a boss and a chest. Sadly, not for me - just more Mummy Wardens

My plan was to craft a +3 Holy Byeshk Khopesh of Bleeding, but I blew the craft of the Holy shard and I didn't have enough Good Essences to try again. Consequently, I decided to run some lower level undead quests to get more Good Essences. I tried "The Missing Party" on Hard, discovered my instructions for how to do the swimming part didn't work. I tried a number of things and finally got through. But I had spent so much time with that hireling that when I dismissed him, I wasn't able to resummon him for the later lever and had to quit the quest. I tried again and was successful.

The Missing Party HARD
Free Delera HARD
Thrall of the Necromancer HARD - Got the Skeleton Key, so can do "An Offering of Blood"

I am going to reset my enhancements to drop Hunter of the Dead I. While I am doing that, I am going to experiment on the effect of enhancements on healing:With Hunter of the Dead I and Devotion I11.5 average healing for Cure Light Wounds (30 casts)
21.0 average healing for Cure Light Wounds with Superior Ardor I (30 casts)
125 healing for Lay On Hands with 22 (+6) CHA
146 healing for Lay On Hands with 24 (+7) CHA

Based upon this, Hunter of the Dead I and Human Amp I provide the same boost to healing.

I tried my Telekinetic Khopesh against the Drow in the wilderness on my way to the next quest and it was a bust

I failed An Offering of Blood 4 times. Each time, I died in the room with the second boss. I am going to give up and try a different quest.

I bought the Necro 3 adventure pack and am going to try the quests in that. Before I do that, I am going to run some quests to get my total favor up to 1000 and earn Vet Status for a toon to do the Crystal Cove

Archer Point Defense ELITE (failed for time first time when I went North)
The Depths of Discord ELITE
The Depths of Doom ELITE

Tomb of the Blighted
* A boring, repetitive, relatively-easy quest
* Hammerblock and Spearblock are good to have
* This quest hade zombies that morphed into a skeleton after you killed them
* This quest has MANY walls of vines that have to be smashed
* I entered the quest and went North to get a pouch of vials
* I went back to the fountain and filled it
* I created a weapon set with the vials
* I threw a vial at the West set of vines and then smashed it
* I came to a room with water on the floor. When I stepped into the water, I got Blight Rot, which damaged most of my stats every 12 seconds. Going to one of the blessed fountains cured it. I figured out later that the easiest way to cure Blight Rot is to throw a Vial of Blessed Water on the ground and then walk into the puddle. I figured out later that the best way to remove the stat damage is to walk around a fountain
* I continued West until I entered a small passage and then a small room with a Putrid Urn and a collectable. I couldn't figure out how to fix the urn. Later, I figured out that I needed to throw a Vial of Blessed Water at the urn
* I went back and then North. At the next intersection, I saw a fountain to the East. I smashed down the vines and some Trogs attacked me
* After killing the trogs, I tried to go to the fountain and instead I bumped into a Gelatinous Cube. Once it was dead, the fountain was purified
* West of the fountain was another Putrid Urn
* I went back to the intersection and headed North. There was an alcove on the West side of the hallway blocked by vines. Behind the vines was a collectable
* I came to a room with some crates floating in some water. Jumping down into the water, I grabbed a collectable. I swam East through a tunnel and grabbed a key. I got Blight Rot when I jumped into the water, so I had to go back to the fountain to cure it
* I continued North to a T. I went West to clear out everything to get a Putrid Urn. I then headed East
* I made the mistake of killing a zombie while it stood in the putrid water. It morphed into a skeletal mage, which I had to go into the water to kill. I had ran out of Lesser Restoration, so I ran back to the shrine at the entrance and rested. I figured out that to smash the Sarcophagi that are in the water is to use a bow from a dry area
* I went East from the shrine. I smashed through some vines on the North side of the first room to reveal a small passage to yet another Putrid Urn
* I continued East and found 2 Putrid Urns in the SE corner
* I went North from there and found a fountain in a room to the West of the hallway
* I continued North to the NE corner, which had 2 Putrid Urns. It also a had chest that required the key I swam for earlier
* I continued West to the North fountain. There was another Putrid Urn North of it with a chest
* I continued West and came into a spider ambush. I kept going counterclockwise back to the shrine, killing ooze #40 ( and #41) on the way and purifying all of the Putrid Urns
* I rested, buff and then went North to smash the final vines
* The final boss was a mummy - not too tough

I died several times on "Tomb of the Forbidden", so I decided to take a break from it and do "Made to Order". I did something stupid - I have been putting off this quest until I could craft a +3 Anarchic Khopesh of True Chaos for fighting the Marut. However, True Chaos is a prefix and not compatible with Anarchic. Oh well. I crafted a +3 Anarchic Khopesh of Lesser Construct Bane instead.

Made to Order
* I have Anarchic and Adamantine weapons to break DR in the final battle
* I wish I had taken a returning weapon to deal with all of the explosive barrels
* The Duergar like to cast Acid, Electric and Fire attacks
* When I entered the quest, I started in an outdoor area. No enemies that I saw. The area has entrances to this quest and "A Relic of a Sovereign Past"
* You don't need to buff when you enter the quest. Instead, go down to the first door, talk to the magic mouth, then buff
* Past the door is an Iron Golem
* I walked on some rails over a big room with lava in the bottom to a door. I opened the door into a fight with some Duergar
* There are some nasty land mines set into the ground at the first bend. I wish I had a decent Spot capability. There are some more at the second bend and the box is just beyond the collectable (on the other side of the traps)
* A little further down the hallway are some Duergar at a T
* I started South and when I got close to the door, I got the optional "Slay 6 Baked Clay Golems". I decided to not go through the door and find a shrine first
* I went back to the T and headed East. I came to a door. I started searching for traps when the door opened and some Duergar charged me
* Hugging the South wall, I avoided the trap and found the box on the last pillar before the door
* I opened the door and there was some Duergar on the other side. When I went North of them, I hugged the West wall, but it didn't prevent me from getting zapped by the trap. The box was on the next pillar on the West side after the trap
* Down the hallway to some more Duergar. To their right is the first shrine, behind a locked door
* I went back to the door that I passed on before. I opened it and fought 2 Baked Clay Golems. I went down the hallway and fought 2 Tempered Iron Golems. I grabbed the crest and returned back to the door next to the shrine
* I opened the door and it lead back to the big lava room, this time at the bottom. I fought some Iron Golems there. I followed the tracks North to an alcove with 2 Tempered Iron Golems and another seal
* I went back to the shrine and rested up. I then went back to the big lava room and took the tracks East to a door. Duergar were on the other side
* I hugged the East wall as I walked up North and around the bend. The trap box was on the first pillar once I turned the corner
* I continued up the passage into a bunch of Duergar and a Clay Golem, who hit me with a Cursed Wound
* That brought me to a T. I went East and opened the door. A bunch of golems jumped me and were beating me up pretty bad. I had to run and then use 1 of my 3 Remove Curse potions in order to cure the Cursed Wound and heal
* After they were dead, I cleared out the area which had a collectable, a chest and a crest
* I left there and went to the door at the North end of the hallway. Behind it was a boss Duergar, some minions and a chest
* I went West into a fight with some Duergar around a land mine trap. I disarmed the trap and headed West
* I spotted a Clay Golem, disarmed the trap just before him and then killed him. I then came to another door
* I went through the door, down some tracks over the big lava room and to another door
* At this point, I had used up most of my buffs, so I went back to the first shrine and rested. Then back to the door that I stopped at
* On the other side of that door was another Duergar fight. After that, there was a trap just after I spotted an Iron Golem
* I went down the hallway to where I spotted the Iron Golem and found a Clay Golem on the South wall. I killed him as Duergar and the Iron Golem moved to attack me. I killed all of them
* This brought me a T. I could see a Clay Golem to the North. I wanted to shot it, but I couldn't get it my focus. Instead, I went through the West door and fought 2 Baked Clay Golems and a Tempered Iron Golem. I got the crest. I also got another Cursed Wound
* I went back to the hallway, went North, killed the Clay Golem, killed the Duergar who charged me
* I continued on to another Duergar fight and another trap. That brought me to a door. I went through the door, on some tracks over the big lava room and then I took the tracks North to a shrine and rested
* I took the left track South and then East. There are undisarmed able electric traps on the tracks. That lead to me to the spot where I could put the seals
* More Duergar on the other side of the door. Down the hallway to some unavoidable land mines and around the corner into more Duergar
* Past one last trap to a door. I opened the door and entered a big room. The Marur was on the far side attacking a door. Along the wall were other golems. I tried attacking a golem and I couldn't
* I should have shrined before the big fight and I didn't buff properly. Consequently, the fight didn't go well and I had to run out and shrine
* I went back towards the last room and the golems and the Marut were waiting for me in the hallway. The Marut was a tough fight as he stunned me often
* There was one more Clay Golem in the hallway. Getting Haywire is pretty funny. I popped the 2 chests in the room and grabbed the collectable
* I didn't finish yet. I went back towards the second shrine and under the tracks just before the shrine is an island in the lava with a collectable. I Feather Fell down to it and then finished

That took me to 1000 Favor. Woot! I have never gotten that much before (752) was my prior best

The Crystal Cove event came up. I normally don't do special events, but the Crystal Cove has some excellent equipment. I also did it so that Gunthep didn't pick up any experience. I made a hat with Concentration +15 and Natural Armor Bonus +5 and another hat with Concentration +15 and Wizardry VII. I made Level 12 Tier 3 Cavalry Armor, a Level 12 Tier 3 Duelist's Leathers, a Level 12 Tier 3 Ring of the Buccaneer and a Level 12 Tier 1 Cutthroat's Smallblade (for the +11 Hide/Move Silently).

A Relic of a Sovereign Past
* Fire Resist is essential for this quest. Deathblock is vital for one section. Being able to do ranged damage is really helpful
* I entered an outdoor area and then find the quest entrance. The initital outdoor area is safe
* Down the long hallway to 2 Duergar in front of the door. After killing them, I went through the door into a big cavern
* I decided to kill the 8 summoners for the xp and to minimize the amount of summoned elementals I have to fight. I went East to the SE corner and then up a ladder to kill 2 summoners. I went North from there to another ladder, went up and killed another summoner. I went West to the other side of the locked door and killed the summoner standing there. North of there is another summoner on a ledge that I had to kill with my bow. He was tough to kill as he was constantly healing himself. West of him was another summoner on a ledge. I then went back to the cavern entrance and then West to the SW corner to a ladder that I climbed to kill summoner #7. Summoner #8 was on a ledge in between the two doors in the Western wall. I could jump up the rocks to get to him
* I went to the Southern door in the West wall. I buffed with Acid, Cold and Fire Resists, put on a Deathblock hat, then went through the Door
* I fought my way down the hallway. I had to keep an eye on my buffs as I would occasionally get debuffed. I eventually came to the last cave, which was locked. To each side was an alcove with a Clay Golem and a switch. I killed the Clay Golems, but got a Cursed Wound. I ran back to the shrine in the SE corner of the main cavern and rested there to clear it
* I came back to the end of the SW tunnel, cast Acid, Electricity and Fire buffs, threw the last switch and went through the last door. A tough fight with lots of priests and some melees. After the fight is over, the boss priest summons a Fire Elemental and an Earth Elemental and then attacks. He has Slay Living, which killed me the first time I did this quest
* I returned to the main cavern and then went North by hopping up the rock to the ledge. I went through the North door in the West wall
* I went up the NW passage, popping doors along the way. Each room had 2-4 Duergar and some smashables
* The last room required throwing two switches to enter and had a boss, 2 Adamantine Defenders, a chest and a switch
* I rested up and headed back down the hallway to the main cavern. I went across the North part to the locked door to the Northeastern section
* I went through the tunnel and fought up the hallway. There are three sections where I went through a gate into a cave with 3 alcoves, lots of Duergar and some Adamantine Ore
* There is also Adamantine Ore in the main hallway. I went down the main hallway until I reach the last cave, where the Forge Master Daredin was hanging out. I had the master smith make me a Nightforge Gorget
* I left that tunnel complex and went through the now open North door. I fought two guards, went through a door, fought some more. There are poison traps, but they aren't big deals. The fighters in this section are very tough. I eventually had to retreat to the shrine in the SW tunnel and rest up there
* I continued up the tunnel as it climbed upward and eventually came to the door to the Northern chamber. I went through it, killed two guards, threw the the switch that opened the gates to the King's chamber and went in
* I talked to the King, trying Diplomacy each time. I failed and fought him. He wasn't that hard

Tomb of the Forbidden
* You need a hireling to do this quest solo
* This is a really hard quest and I died many times doing it
* Only about a fourth of the mobs in this quest are undead, not what I was expecting
* A high Balance skill is really helpful as there is lots of ice and you have a chance of falling whenever on it
* Cold Resist and fire weapons are vital for this quest. Resist Acid and Electricity are also important for the arcanes
* Shield is helpful for the quest as Ice Mephit Warriors cast Magic Missile
* Ice Flensers have Good DR
* Moving forward slowly is very wise in this quest as mobs spawn when you reach a certain point. Move too fast and many mobs will spawn
* I came into the quest, went down the hallway and came into a room (more of an orthogonal hallway) and a fight
* I went down a little hallway and came to a room with an Unholy Friar. I killed him with the bow because I didn't want to step into the room. Just inside the room on the right is the trap box
* The first time I did this quest, I didn't search for that trap and I fell into a trap I hadn't seen before - the floor fell into a sloping position and was covered with grease and had pointy things at the bottom of the slope. I kept walking against the grease until it was gone, but I didn't see any way of getting back to the beginning of the quest. I had to recall, wait for the quest to reset and then try again
* To leave that area, I had to get past a spinning trap. If I walked through it when it wasn't spinning I took no damage. Past it, I came to a door, which I unlocked
* That opened on to a room with a faux brige and a fight. At the far side of the bridge was a trap that killed a couple of the mobs. I disarmed it (right side of the steps) and killed the last mob (a Troll)
* I unlocked the next door and went into another fight with an Ogre Magi. That room has a lockbox and a collectable. The lockbox yielded a small red gear
* I unlocked the next door and in the hallway were Glass Spiders and Arcane Oozes
* I unlocked the next door and entered a long room with lots of ice. I smashed two sets of Sarcophagi, one on each side. I then went down the center of the room, smashing another set of Sarcophagi
* I then ran back to the beginning of the quest, summoned a hireling, parked him
* I went back to the long room and went down one of the side passages and up the stairs to a lever. I started throwing the lever, and then backed up to interrupt the process. I then right-clicked on the lever. I summoned the hireling to me and parked him there. I then went to the other side to its lever. I clicked on the hireling's Gears button, waited for him to completely throw his lever, then I threw my lever
* Some mobs spawned and I killed them. The skeletal archers on ice flows were very annoying to fight. I tried to push them to an area with no ice. I went down the hallway and the way to the other side was barred. After a long while, it raised. I killed the mobs over there. The best strategy is to run away so that the skeletal archers can't shoot me while I am killing the non-archers, then go back to kill the archers
* The gate in the center hallway dropped. I went down that hallway and mobs spawned every few steps
* That lead to a room with an ice floor. Another fight spawned there
* Eventually I got to a door, opened it and yet another fight. That room had a shrine, but I didn't use it
* You need to pass through the West wall, but I didn't see any way of getting the wall to move. Eventually, with DDO Wiki's help, I figured out that I had to shoot the skull in the ceiling of the room
* I went down the hallway into a small fight
* I opened the door and then backed away as I knew it would be a tough fight. I ran away while fighting this battle a couple of times to try to stretch the combatants at. Tough fight, but they all eventually fell
* I went back to the room, killed a skeletal archer, popped the chest and grabbed the gear
* I went back to the heal shrine and used it again
* I threw the lever and left the room. A little fight in the hallway and down to the next door
* This room has three hallways. I went down the center hallway and came to a door. I went through it and came to a gate. Like the prior room, the two side hallways have levers that have to be thrown at almost the same time to open the gate
* I threw the East lever, went down the ladder to Ice Mephits, then Arcane Oozes, then skeletons. I had to wait for the other gate to raise. Just skeletons on that side
* I went to the central passage and was attacked by Ice Mephits. I went down to the gate and opened it. On the other side of the gate is a collectable and a letter
* I opened the next door into a tough battle. The best strategy I found was to pull the mobs out into prior corridors rather than fighting them all at one. A boss (Tessa Vanderkliefe) can be in this room. She throws lots of Blade Barriers. There was a chest in the room, around the corner from the door
* After that fight, I went out the South side of the room and down some hallways. Ice Mephit fight in there. I came to a room with a frozen Mindflayer. I was worried about smashing it, but it didn't spawn and I got the needed key. I also got the collectable
* I turned to leave the room and a tough battle spawned with skeletons and Ice Mephits. I ran way back to the room with the last chest to string out the mobs and then fought my way back to the shrine
* Heading back, there is an obvious hallway behind a secret door. I found the secret door and opened it. Behind it was oozes and glass spiders. I went a little further along and 3 Frostmorrow Evokers spawned - tough battle
* I continued down to another door and into an really tough battle with multiple Frostmorrow Evokers, Ice Flensers and Ice Mephits. Again, I ran to break up the mobs and it was a very tough fight. Turns out it was all for naught - I couldn't find the hidden door that revealed the chest
* I rested up as I had used up all my healing in the last tough battle. I went through the remaining door heading Northwest
* Down the hallway, I had a fight and then I crossed over a bridge to a fight with 2 Ice Flensers, a Troll and an Ogre Mage in a narrow spot. The Ice Flensers cast Ice spells which made it impossible to get my footing to swing. I retreated to the bridge and then didn't follow. I pulled out my bow and killed the Ice Flenser from there. I went back and killed the Troll, killed the other Ice Flenser from the bridge with my bow, then went back and killed the Ogre Mage
* Through that door into another fight. That took me to the door to the final room, which needed the key I got from the frozen Mind Flayer
* The last room was really...different. There are a bunch of elevated walkways that I started on. I dropped down to the floor below, went over to the sarcophagus. I smashed it and the final boss showed up. I killed him without much problem. I then popped the two chests. At this point, I was thinking, "That was it?". I then went out into the room to search one last time for smashables when a whole bunch of mobs spawned. At the point, my buffs wore off so they started doing a lot of damage. I healed and buffed on the run and eventually killed them all

Tomb of the Tormented
* I took a level 12 Favored Soul hireling on this on to cast Blade Barrier. I am so glad I did as I don't know how I would have made it without her
* I strongly recommend printing out the map from DDOwiki.com before entering the quest so you will have a map of the mazes
* Rogue skills make the last maze go faster
* This quest is totally different than any other quest I have done. The goal is to guide a rat through three different mazes. You guide the rat by killing zombies (which become rotten meat) and then dropping the meat into the maze in front of the rat
* I entered a room that has a maze beneath the floor and lots of
sarcophagi. I smashed the sarcophagi, killing the wights inside
* I then summoned the Favored Soul hireling and had her kill the Worgs done in the maze with Blade Barrier
* I then tried going to the East and there was a message about the mummy. The zombies on the floor woke up and I killed them. I grabbed the meat and then guided the rat to the end of the maze
* I went North from there to room with yet more sarcophagi. Skeletons spawned. I killed them, smashed the sarcophagi and killed the wights
* On to the next maze room. It was a little trickier as I had to guide the rat to two pressure plates before I could guide it to the end. I kept getting confused until I put my printed map in the same orientation as I was facing
* Next interim room - more skeletons and more sarcophagi
* On to the last maze room. After I smashed all of the sarcophagi, I started on the maze. There are three disarmable traps in the maze, so I disarmed them. There is one spinning blade trap that patrols a large area between the first and second pressure plates. To get past it, I guided the rat to the hole just before the patrolled area. When the blade trap reached the end of the patrolled area, I guided the rat to follow it until I came to a untrapped alcove, where I ducked the rat. I waited until the blade trap was back on the way to the second pressure plate to have the rat follow it to another untrapped alcove. Once the blade trap passed that alcove, I guided the rat to the second pressure plate. The rat had to wait for the blade trap to move away from the hallway leading to the second pressure plate to move to the third pressure plate, but there were no other dangers. Between pressure plates #3 and #4 was an enemy rat that killed the first rat I sent that way. The second rat killed it, reached pressure plate #4 and then out of the maze
* The FvS hireling was invaluable as I had to be primarily focused on the rats and the maze while the zombies respawned constantly. Having someone to kill them while I guided the rats was huge
* The final boss was a mummy. Not a tough fight. A optional came up, but per DDOwiki.com, it is bugged and can't be completed (it should have came up at the beginning)
* I popped the chest and hit Finish. HUGE MISTAKE. Apparently, I could have gone into the mazes. There is suppose to be one chest in the mazes and I know there are a considerable number of collectables

Tomb of the Unhallowed
* You have to defeat a boss Vampire, a boss Clay Golem and lots of incorperal undead, so take appropriate weapons
* Resist Acid, Electricity and Fire are really helpful
* I started in a large room. I buffed and then approached the North door, which opened
* I went up the hallway North, killing cultists as I went. There were some traps, but they were easily avoided
* I got to the far North room and after killing the priest, I activated the altar
* A bunch of undead spawned, but no guardian. I went South to the next room and the guardian spawned there - a giant skeleton. Not too tough a fight
* A door to the East opened. I went down a hallway with skeletons to a room. In the room, cultists were fighting skeletons. I cleared the room and then went down the next hallway, which had skeletons. Next room again had cultists fighting skeletons. I continued on to the far East room
* I went up the steps, killed the Skeleton Archers and then activated the altar. A bunch of zombies spawned. I ran over to a ledge on the South side of the room where the zombies couldn't mob me
* The upper South wall had a hidden door. It took a Search of 25-27 to find it. There was a trapped, locked chest there and a collectable
* I went West down the hallway. When I got to the next room, a boss Clay Golem and a bunch of zombies spawned. I retreated back down the hallway to the East until the Dolurrh effect ended as it seemed to cut my Holy damage. I killed everything, went back into the room and killed everything
* A door to the South opened. Beyond was a hallway with Skeletons and Zombies. I went down to room with a shrine, but didn't rest. Next hallway had more Skeletons and Zombies. The next room had cultists fighting skeletons. I then went down the hallway to the far South room, killing Skeletons and Zombies
* In the far South room was some nasty rats. I killed those. I then disarmed a bunch of traps and went back to the Clay Golem boss room. I took the hallway West to the central room, killing the last Eternal Wizard on the way
* I wandered around, disarming traps until I had disarmed all the traps that I had bypassed. I rested and then headed to the far South room
* I activated the altar. A bunch of spectral undead spawned. I killed them. I went back North and a boss Spectre spawned with a bunch of undead. The boss Spectre went down pretty quick then I killed the rest. There was a chest in the room
* I explored North up to the main room and then came back to the boss Spectre room. I went West, killing mixed undead and went to the far West room
* I activated the altar there. A bunch of Wights spawned. I killed them. I went back East and in the next room, a boss Vampire spawned with a mix of undead. I killed all his minions first and then killed him. Doors to the North and East opened
* I then went North pass the shrine to a chest. I went back to the shrine to rest up
* I went East down the hallway, killing some mixed undead. I came to the central room
* After a bit, the final Mummy boss and a mixed group of undead spawned. I concentrated on the boss and when I killed him, the other undead disappeared. I popped his chest
* DOwiki.com says there are 5 chests, but I could only find 4

Since U11 has come out, the only Greater Essences I have found in chest have been 5 Fire and 1 Evil. At the same time, I can't really say they aren't dropping enough as the prices on the AH are relatively low - I regularly see a few Greater Essences for 300 each. Crafting is very important this toon but the U11 drops aren't sufficient to make self-found sourced crafting. So what to do? I could say that I now consider essences to be crafting supplies and start buying them off the AH. However, I liked being constrained in the amount of crafting I could do. So what I am going to do is consider Mnemonic Elixirs as an alternative to essences and any money I make from selling Mnemonic Elixirs I can use to purchase essences off the AH. My best quest reward for my last quest was an Elixir of Major Mnemonic Enhancement. I sold it through the Trade Channel for a net of 17439. I am going to use that money to buy essences off the AH.

The Enemy Within
* This quest is basically an undead quest with some boss Mindflayers. The Mindflayers have Byeshk resistance and I didn't find them tough as I had a +4 Holy Byeshk Khopesh. I didn't find it a tough quest, but I was able to handle the steady diet of Frostmarrow Sellswords
* Lots of Frostmarrow undead, so Acid, Cold and Fire Resists are helpful
* I entered the quest. It starts in the same location of "Mirra's Sleepless Nights". I didn't need to buff when I entered the quest. I followed the Mirra storyline until I got two the two Iron Golems behind the magic barrier. The Iron Golems break the barrier, allowing me through. The Iron Golems are eye candy
* I continued along until I saw some undead on the floor. Buff time. I went towards them and it turned into an Skeleton ambush
* I continued down the hallway until I saw a blackness blocking the hallway. To the North was a door. I smashed through it. There was a Mindflayer there. He said a little spiel, then there was a Skeleton battle
* I resumed down the hallway into a small room and another Skeleton battle. There was a ladder that led up to a platform. Two Skeleton Archers up there and a trapped switch. The trap box was on the side of the platform. The door opened after I threw the switch
* Two Skeletons came to greet me. After I killed them, I turned the corner to see a pack of Skeletons. I retreated and waited for the melee Skeletons to come to me. I then went down the hallway and killed the rest of the skeletons
* I left that room and went down a hallway into another fight. Beyond the fight where the hallway narrows and opens up again was a trap. I disarmed that and continue down the hallway to the next room
* There were a couple of melee Skeletons and I could see an Arcane Skeleton at the top of the stairs. I ran towards him and a bunch of melee Skeletons moved in behind me. I retreated down the hall, killed the melee Skeletons, then came back to kill the Arcane Skeleton and the Skeleton Archers
* When I killed all the Skeletons in the room, the doors to the North and South opened. I went downstairs and smashed the Sarcophagi down there. Quite a few melee Skeletons spawned
* Back up stairs and through the North door. There was a Skeleton Mage down the hallway with 2 Skeleton melees in front of it. As I charged the Skeleton Mage, the floor collaped and I fell into a trap. Fortunately, I was able to hop immediately up the ladder and then kill the Skeleton Mage. The Skeleton melees died in the pit. I threw the lever and and continued on
* I killed some Skeleton Archers, then came to a "T". The floor in front of the "T" was a pit trap which I avoided. I went North and fought some Failed Voidminds (Wights). Later, I figured out that if I retreated back to the edge of the pit, some of the Failed Voidminds would fall in and die. The room had 4 collectables and a crest
* I left there and continued West, coming to a room with a shrine. I threw the lever there and fought my way South to a gate. I put the crest in the slot there but the gate didn't open
* I retreated to the room with the stairs and went through the South door. Pretty much the same as the North part. When I put the crest in the slot, the gate went down for another fight
* I came to some stairs and down below I could see some Mindvoid representative of each house. I had a fight with them and some Skeletons. Near the stairs was a locked chest. I smashed the sarcophagi near the stairs and some Skeleton melees spawned
* I fought West down the hallway
* From the DDO Wiki map, the North and South look almost symmetrical. I went North. Most of it, I had seen earlier in the quest. There was a chest behind a secret door in the first room and a boss Mindflayer in the last room
* The South was the same as the North except no secret door
* I went back to the final hallway to the West and put in the three pairs of crest. The final battle was a boss Mindflayer and 4 Mindvoid house representatives. Not too bad

I tried "An Offering of Blood" a few times and failed miserably. I am at rank 65 and am going to level up

Level 13

I took my 10th Paladin level. I am looking forward to Evasion, but I need DPS more right now and I am going to get it with the Divine Might II and Exalted Smite II enhancements.

I tried "The Cursed Crypt" several times. Defeating the projections is really tough! I made steady progress, but decided to take a break from that. I tried "An Offering of Blood" twice, got to the second bridge both times but got overwhelmed while trying to throw the lever for it.

Diplomatic Impunity
* Most of the jungle mobs are Neutral and were immune to my Holy weapons
* I headed Southeast as far as I could go then went Northeast to a Root Wall that blocked my path. There were lots of Jungle Scorpions in the area and exploring just made more spawn
* Beyond that was a collectable, then a small Vinethrasher camp, then another collectable, then a boss Scorpion, then the first shrine, then another Root Wall
* I went South from the second Root wall, killing Jungle Panthers. There was a small cave which the DM said was the Jungle Panther lair that I cleared it out
* Continuing Southwest, a ran into a boss Jungle Panther and North of there was another collectable
* At this point, I could either go East or go North. The North is an optional area. I went North, fought some Jungle Scorpions, and smashed through a Root Wall. I went North to a shrine and a Vinethrasher battle spawned there. They used Acid, Cold and Electricity attacks. I got a chest and xp for defeating the ambush. There was also a collectable in the area
* I went back to the first shrine and rested. I then went back to the boss Panther area and then went through the Root Wall to the East
* I could have gone three ways after that Root Wall. North took me to the second shrine and a dead end. Northwest took me to Ullevian and an overlook of the Droaam camp. He ordered me to go back to camp to warn them of the impending Droaam attack
* I don't know if I could have retraced my steps past the first shrine. I went back to three way split (killing a couple of patrols on the way) and went South. There was a Root Wall to the South for later. This path took me East across the bamboo bridge to the Vinethrasher Clan's village. I used Diplomacy on the guard and he let me through
* Just before the village was a shrine. The village itself had a collactable and lots of smashables that I smashed. Northwest of the village was another collectable and some barrels floating in a pond
* The clan leader was in a large, open bamboo structure in the center of the village. I talked to him, not using Diplomacy or Intimidate. I fought the village champion (he was pretty easy) and got a chest
* I went out through the gate and headed back to camp. I talked to Henritta. She told me to go confront the Drooam War Captain
* I went through the Vinethrasher village, rested at their shrine and then went to last remaining Root Wall. I buffed up and then smashed it
* I fought various mobs as I looped around and up to the camp
* At the camp, I was invited to talk to the War Captain. There are several traps in his vicinity, but I had no trouble staying away from them during the final fight. The War Captain had a lot of interesting dialogue. Eventually, he activated and I fought him and a bunch of his minions. It was a tough fight and I was getting pretty low on life when I finally put him down. I popped a chest and finished

It is Mabar time and I made a Level 16 Cloak of Night. I thought the Level 12 version wasn't worth the time to make. I thought about the +9 Eternal Wand of Disrupt Undead, but I think a bow will be just as effective. I decide to just farm and sell Motes of Night. Selling didn't work too well, so I ended up trading the Motes for Essences. I got a lot of Essences. I made a +4 Bodyfeeder Kukri, which I really like. It drops my AC compared to a shield, but it increases my DPS and provides a steady stream of temporary HP's. I also made a Enchantment Save +5 gloves. I also made a Holy Longbow of Pure Good, which is awesome when firing +4 Frost/Fire Arrows

I tried "The Cursed Crypt" again. I can kill the first projection pretty easily now. The second one just doesn't act like the first one does and I ended fighting the projection, the Silver Flamers and the wolves. Sadly, I was a little slow on the Unyielding Sovereignity and died.

I tried "An Offering of Blood" some more. I tried various ideas, but none of them were successful. I created this thread asking for advice. Using the advice there, I was able to complete it.

An Offering of Blood
* I died on this quest many times until I found the right pace for advancing up the quest. Enemies respawn behind you, but not so fast as to get too worrited about it. Zerging ahead just got me mobbed. This quests has many side tunnels with chests/possible chests that I didn't bother with as I was having such a tough time completing the quest
* On entering the quest, I was above a hole. I Feather Fell down and killed some scorpions (easy)
* I switched to my Adamantine weapon. I went to the body of the dead gnoll and buffed up. I took the bowl and a boss scorpion appeared. I ran to the North door and fought him there. He was a tough fight
* I switched to my usual weapons and then raced North up the tunnel until I reached a door, threw the lever, ran to the next door, threw the lever, came to a bridge, and threw the lever to make it drop
* The bridge is trapped, but I don't see how I could disarm with the constant attacks. I ran across and threw a lever, cutting off the mobs behind me
* There were a lot of mobs on my side of the bridge. I concentrated on the Scorrow first and then killed the rest
* The next door is locked and contains a shrine. I unlocked it, grabbed the two collectables and rested
* From this point, any time I saw a Scorrow, I would kill it immediately. There are other Drow and I would kill them if they attacked me, but I didn't go out of my way to kill them
* I went steadily up the hallway, killing mobs and throwing levers as I went. I entered a small room with a locked door to the West, a door to the North and some Scorrow. After I killed everything in the room, I healed up then threw the lever
* I entered another big room whose exit was sealed by a fire wall. A boss Scorrow appearred. I went over to the South door, fought there for a bit and when the door opened, I went into the alcove and fought there as I could keep the mobs in front of me. I killed everything, looted the chest and then continued up the spiral.
* Again, I killed any Scorrow I encountered as quickly as I could. I didn't have much difficulty getting to the second bridge
* At the second bridge, I threw the lever and crossed. I jumped down along the West wall and continued down until I found some water. I jumped into it and swam down and around until I found a way open. That lead to a little alcove that had a shrine, two collectables, a journal and a pick
* I rested and then swam back. I buffed, killed some scorpions, went up some ramps, killed some Drow archers and fought my way to the final door
* The last fight was pretty anti-climatic as I easily killed the two minion Scorrow and the last boss didn't damage me much. The two earlier boss battles were more challenging.
* I went and talked to the NPC, then took the rope out of the quest

Frame Work
* I found this an easy quest until the final battle, which I didn't do too well on
* The casters used Fire and Electrical attack spells
* I started on a path leading to the Minotaur village. I talked to the Warforged Dorris and got a wand to use to stone Minotaurs
* At this point, I could have chosen stealth or mayhem. As I didn't know how to do stealth (discussed later), I went with mayhem
* I followed the path down to the village and eventually arrived at the gate
* I stoned the two Minotaur guards at the gate
* I couldn't see any way of opening the gate. However, when I went close to it the alarm was sounded, the gate dropped and some Minotaurs charged me
* After that, it was a steady slaughter of Minotaurs. I went South for a while, came back to the gate and went North, grabbing collectables and looking for chests the whole time
* Eventually I came to an open gate that lead to the lake. I exited the village and wandered the countryside
* The countryside has broken ballistas and ballista parts. It also many collectables and potentially several bosses with chests (I encountered at least 1, maybe 2). I gathered all 10 ballista parts and repaired a couple of ballistas
* I went back inside the village and continued the slaughter. Eventually, I came to a broad staircase in the Southern part of the village that lead up to a gate (and the final boss)
* I disarmed the 4 traps, 2 on each side of the staircase. While I was doing that, I heard the Droaam ambassador's evil plans
* Once again, I couldn't find any way of opening the gate. Suddenly, I was spotted, the gate dropped and the final battle began
* I didn't buff/equip properly for the final battle. I really needed my best DPS. I started with a Khopesh and a shield and evetually switched to TWF. I fought three bosses - a boss Minotaur, a boss Ogre Mage and a boss Orc Shaman. I am guessing the Orc Shaman was healing the other 2 bosses. I would get close to killing the boss Minotaur or the boss Ogre Mage and then they would get healed back up. Several regular Minotaurs also spawned when the gate went down, making the battle even harder. I was surrounded at the gate and getting pummeled.
* I eventually got smart and ran away. I eventually ran to the bridge that ran North from the Southern part of the village where the mobs couldn't get behind me. I killed the boss Minotaur there. I got very close to killing the Ogre Mage there, but just didn't have enough self-healing to risk continuing fighting. I ran to one of the village walls, jumped over and ran back to Dorris
* Dorris was quite disgusted with me
* To use stealth, I would guess that I should have started the quest roaming the countryside, getting the ballista parts. After repairing a ballista, I would use it to enter the village. I would guess that one of the Southern ballistas would be the best to use as the final battle is in the Southern part of the village. From there, I would repair one of the ballistas in the Southern part of the village and use it to fling myself into the final compound. I don't know if stealth would be any faster, but it would be less xp and less loot. Another possibility is that with a Jump of 40, I might of been able to jump over the village walls and skip the whole repair-the-ballista exercise

Eyes of Stone
* I recommend having an returning throwing weapon
* When the quest started, I was in a private instance of the Lordsmarch Plaza
* I talked to Tollis and then went West and through the door to the next area
* I talked to the NPC and then go West into the Archives. The Archives is optional if you have someway of casting Stone to Flesh, but I don't
* I talked to the Archivist. The archives are a square with occacional mobs. I used a returning throwing dagger to blow up explosive barrels. The salve was in a box on top of the shelves in one of the corners. There are five collectables that required me to jump on top of a desk or stack of stuff to get on top of the shelves and then jump down
* To use the Salve, place it on your toolbar, target the NPC and click the item on the toolbar. There is a 30 second cool down between uses. I freed the guard near the salve and the three guards near the entrance
* From the entrance area, I went South and through the doors
* In this area, there was a long room in front of me and two stairways to either side. I killed the mobs in the long room, freed a guard and then smashed things in the long room
* I went up the stairs and then went around the hallway, killing mobs and I freed a guard
* There was one open room and I went in there, killing the mobs there. There was a lever that I threw. There was also a secret door in the room behind which was a chest
* In was time to open a door. I opened the Southeast one and there was a boss Gnoll mage who summoned an Air Elemental. I cast Resist Electricity as both cast lightning bolts. Melee weapons didn't seem to effect the Air Elemental, but my bow killed him. I freed a Coin Lord
* I opened the door North of there and fought another Boss Gnoll mage and then two water elemetnals. I freed a Coin Lord
* I opened the Southwest door, fought another Boss Gnoll mage and then an Earth Elemental. I freed a Coin Lord
* I opened the door North of there and fought another Boss Gnoll mage and then a fire elemetnal. I freed a Coin Lord
* While upstairs, I went North and came up on the second floor of the entrance to the archives. I killed all the mobs and free a guard
* I went through the East door and on to the second floor of Lordsmarch Plaza. I killed some mobs, freed a guard and went South to talk to a NPC, who told me how to reach the Medusa
* I went North and saw some mobs, but a gate slammed shut when I got close. I went back to the lever in front where I came in and threw it. That opened gates to stairs that lead down to the Lordsmarch Plaza
* I snuck down the stairs and saw some mobs in the middle of the plaza. I shot at them with my bow and the melees came to attack me. There was also a gnoll mage casting fire spells. I killed the melees and the mage and then went down into the plaza to kill the archers. A lot of mobs spawned to surround me. I eventually ran back to the stairs to keep them in front of me and I killed them there
* I went back to the shrine and rested
* I went up the stairs that is in the Southeast of the Lordsmarch Plaza and kills some mobs on the landing. I went through the door into a room with a boss Troll who was a VERY tough fight. I used all my LoH and Unyielding Sovereignity while fighing him. I popped the chest. The Magic Mouths in that room were funny
* I went back to Lordsmarch Plaza and took the stairs in the Northeast up to the North and killed all the mobs on the landing. I went through the doors
* There were some kobolds behind a bunch of explosive barrels. I killed them and exploded all the barrels. North of there is a doorway, beyond which are some mobs. I cleared the room and then kill some kobolds down a stairway, which caused the tunnel to collapse and earned me an optional
* I went South from there and then West. Archers shot at me and I killed them. I went South to the door and killed the mobs that had jeered me earlier behind the gate. I killed them. I went North from there to a door, on the other side of which was the Maintanence room and a shrine. I rested
* I went up the ladder and around a corner to a grate. I buffed up there and went through the grate
* I had a few moments before she started attacking. I ran constantly the whole time in the room. I killed her minions, freed a guard and then started whacking on her. She would make a telltale sound before she used her Petrifying Gaze and when she made that sound, I tried to flank her. When the timer was off on the salve, I freed the other guard. When more minions spawned, I killed them. She doesn't regen, so I just steadily whacked on her until she died
* There are two switches in this room that apparently operate a mirror. The first time I ran this quest, I tried using them and all I did was waste time and take damage

Chains of Flame
* To get a chest and a bunch of xp, you need to have a Bluff of 21
* It takes a LONG time to make it through the wilderness area to the quest. I went off track a bit by climbing a hill that eventually lead to the Collapsed Entrance and the shrine there. After I reached the quest entrance, I went back to the shrine, rested and then entered the quest
* The map is useless for this quest as you constantly move higher in the same area
* It is a long way to the second shrine, so I covered as much ground as possible while I had buffs and then went back and smashed stuff and freed slaves
* I entered the quest, buffed, popped the door, ran across and killed some gnolls
* I continued North to the first T and then went left and through the doors, down a hallway to another T
* I went left, through some doors, down some stairs, through some doors and then to a bridge. Lots of Fire Mephits activate halfway across
* On the other side of the bridge is another door, which leads to a winding hallway with lots of Mephits. It lead to a door with Gnolls on the other side. In a cul-de-sac to the South is a collectable. Beyond that was the next door
* On the other side of the door was a boss fight and three prisoners to free. The boss dropped a key
* I retraced my steps all the way back to the second T, where I went across to the locked door and unlocked it
* I went down that hallway to a battle at a T. I went left into the kitchen. I buffed up my Bluff to at least 21 and then talked to the Ogre Mage cook, Unkor the Gourmet. I killed Unkor and his two assistants and Unkor dropped a key. I talked to the Dwarf he was about to cook and got another key
* Back to the third T and then left (North) to the next door. On the other side was a bridge, on the far side of which was a fight, a collectable and another door. Through that door was another boss, some slaves and a chest. The boss dropped yet another key
* I returned to the first T and went through the locked door. It led to a winding hallway with fire traps that I don't think I could disarm. I continued down the hallway to a fight
* Through the next door, across a short bridge, through another door into a hallway filled with Mephits. To the left is a door to the first shrine, which I didn't use as it is a long ways to the next one. Down the hallway just beyond the shrine is another collectable
* Down the main hallway (more Mephits) to a door. On the other side of that door was a tough fight around a bridge. It was apparently many of the archers that have been sniping at me. There were 3 prisoners that I freed
* On the other side of the bridge (it is T #4) and went North through the door. An Elder Fire Elemental spawned on the other side. There was a collectable next to where it spawned. I went through another door and into a very big fight. I came to the door of the Treasury and I was able to get the chest because I had saved the Dwarf. Beyond the Treasury were 2 more prisoners and a collectable. At was out of Resist Energy buffs and SP's so I returned to the first shrine and rested
* I returned to T #4 and went down the path West to a heavy locked door. I opened it and there were some blade traps on the other side that I apparently couldn't disarm. Beyond that was another door
* Around the corner from that door was a fight in a ledge area. The ledge area had two doors. I went through the first doors North. Up the hallway staying to the center to avoid a blade trap to another door. A boss battle was beyond the door. The boss dropped a key. I threw a lever and freed a prisoner
* Back to the ledge area and through the other door. A Elder Fire Elemental spawned there. Through the next door led to a ledge area with a bridge, two prisoners and a collectable
* I went through the doors to my right (East) and entered a room with a Minotaur. When I spoke to him, 2 Elder Fire Elementals and an Elder Air Elemental spawned. A very tough fight. After I killed them, I talked to the Minotaur again and got a chest
* I went back to the ledge area, crossed the bridge and went through the door. Down the hallway was a ladder which lead up to an walkway guarded by archers. I killed them and then continued up the next ladder
* Through a door and across a bridge to another fight. Opened the door, behind which was a pack of sleeping hyenas. Through the next locked door to a room with a collectable, beyond which was a bridge over a room I had a boss battle in earlier with some gnoll archers. Beyond that was a big fight at a T (#5)
* I went North through some doors. There was a bridge with some gnolls on it and snipers above. Through a round door to a hallway with Mephits to another round door
* Beyond that door is a bridge with a large number of gnoll snipers above it. I snuck across, freed a slave to the left of the bridge and went through the next door South. That room has spike and fire traps. I went through the doors
* The next room had a locked door to the East and a door to the South (T #6). Off to the side of the room was a prisoner
* I headed South to the door and then through it to a ledge area. To the right of the door is a little platform and a prisoner
* I sprinted South across a bridge to a door. On the other side was another boss battle. The boss dropped a key. I released 3 prisoners, one of which gave me a key. There was a locked chest in the room that was beyond my ability to open
* I went back across the bridge and then to the right to a door that faced North. I went through to a ledge area with lots of gnolls. I freed a prisoner there and then threw a lever, which dropped a bridge to the second shrine
* I retraced my steps to the prior ledge area and on the left side I Feather Fell down to a ledge to the South with a collectable. I Feather Fell North from there down to another ledge area. I went West along the ledge, left across the bridge, up the ladders, across the bridge and through the room s to T #5. I went East from there across the bridge to the shrine and rested
* From the shrine, I went West to T #5, across the bridge and through the winding hallway back up to the bridge with lots of snipers above it (which I snuck across), through the room with spike and fire traps back to T #6. I went through the locked door to the East
* Beyond the door is a library with a prisoner (which I freed) and a Erath the Blinded. I buffed up then talked to Erath. I should have needed a Remove Curse and a Remove Blindness per DDOwiki, but I was never blinded. I used the remove curse. Ogre Magis spawned up the ladder on the second floor. I killed them and then talked to Erath again to free him
* I went up the ladder and popped a chest. I then went through the now unlocked door North and cleared out the ledge that overlooked the bridge with so many snipers
* From there, I Feather Fell down to the bridge and then down to a ledge to the right (East). There were 2 prisoners there that I freed. I jumped East from there to a bridge and went North from there back up the prior bridge and then on from there back to the library and the high ledge
* I went to the West side of the high ledge and then jumped North to a ledge to grab a collectable and free a slave. I jumped North from there to reach the ledge with the Treasury on it. I took the long and windy road back up the highest ledge and went through the door
* There was a collectable on the other side between two traps. Beyond that was a bridge which led to a round door. Beyond that was a gnoll party. Up the ladder to another round door which had more gnolls behind it
* Through another round door, more gnolls, up more ladders to a cave where an Elder Fire Elemental and some Mephits spawned
* Through the last round door to a very tough fight. The two bosses either self-healed or were healed by casters very quickly. I eventually switched to killing all the minions but was forced to run back to the second shrine to heal up. The two bosses met me halfway back to the final room where I was able to kill them
* I went back to the final room and search the Efeeti Hoard to complete the quest. I then popped the chest
* I still had three more prisoners to find. The first was outside the final room in a little pod. I went down the two sets of ladders and then North across the bridge. I Feather Fell from there to a ledge North of the bridge where the last two prisoners were. I hit Finish

A Cabal for One
* One of the enemies in this quest were Loremasters, who cast Displaement and healing spells. When they were with a group, I would through all of my Smite Evils and Divine Sacrifices at them until they casted Displacement. Once they cast Displacement, I would concentrate on the other mobs and save them for last
* When I entered the quest, I buffed up and headed North up a hallway. I turned a corner into a fight. There was a Hobgoblin NPC there. I talked to him, promised to do his killing and he unlocked the door out of there and promised to disarm all of the traps. Looking back on it, I should have fought him instead so that the final battle wouldn't have been ridiculously hard
* I went East from there and then North through a door into a room. The East wall had a secret door behind which was a collectable
* I continued North and then West. In front of a gate I had a hard fight
* There was a gate there, but I couldn't open it on this side so I went through a door East instead
* I cleared out that room. There is apparently a secret door in the room behind which is a chest trapped by a super powerful trap. I couldn't find the secret door and moved on
* I left the room and came to a long hallway filled with Hobgblins. I backed up around the corner so that the archers couldn't hit me and started killing melees. I eventually cleared the hallway
* I came to a "Y" and went left and through some doors to a fight in a room with a shrine. I backed up to the "Y" and went the other way and then down a passageway left into a room. I cleared out that room and then returned to the shrine and rested
* I returned to where I left off exploring, buffed up and headed Northwest and around. After a big fight, I went through the door North into a room with another fight. I climbed up the ladder to another Loremaster and then went through the door West and then through the door East and their fights behind both
* I continued Southeast from there and got to the passageway East. I probably could have kept going, but decided to play it safe and rest once more
* I headed East again and entered the Throne room. There was a fight as I entered and then a big fight with two red bosses, two loremasters and other mobs. I eventually ran away. The mobs followed me, allowing me to thin them out. Eventually, the lore masters and the red bosses got the white octogons over their heads and they returned to the throne room. I tried attacking again and agsin was forced to flee. This time, I rested up after fleeing
* I switched from sword and board to TWF. On my way back to the Throne room, I met and killed one of the Loremasters. Back in the Throne room, I focused on killing the remaining Loremaster so no more Displacement. I then killed the two bosses
* I grabbed the two chests and the collectable and finished

I started "A Cry for Help" and got slaughtered by a trap. I decided to take a break from new quests and instead to level up and run old quests for favor.

I failed this quest several times. Commander Tesara is useless. The only thing I saw her do was flex her knees every so often. I had to stay inside the fort to kill the baddies that regularly snuck in to pummel her and I couldn't always rescue her in time. I eventually hired a level 14 Cleric hireling and parked him next to her and I still had to spend most of my time babysitting her. The quest itself was just a boring grind. After all of that displeasure, I got a Purified Eberron Dragonshard Fragment in the chest.

All of my quests level 1-6 are done on Elite. I got XP and Essences from the level 6 quests done on Elite.

The Missing Party ELITE
Free Delera ELITE
The Graverobber ELITE
The Last Move: The Way to Yarkuch ELITE
The Last Move: Yarkuch's Last Stand ELITE
Haunted Library HARD
Caverns of Korromar HARD
Tharashk Arena
The Prisoner

Crafting has been a huge money pit for me. When I got to level 40 crafting, I really slowed down going up in levels as (1) the amount of essences to make shards became so high and (2) there weren't many shards that I wanted to make and equip as soon as I leveled up. In particular, I had a ton of Divine and Elemental type essences and not a lot I wanted to craft with them. To bump up my crafting level, I started making unbound shards. Then I decided to see if I could sell the unbound shards. When I tried selling unbound shards earlier, it was a waste of time as they didn't sell. This time, they have sold pretty well. Flaming, Frost, Stunning +4 and Wise +2 have sold briskly. Weapons made with Superior Ardor III, Freeze III and Inferno III have sold decently. Consequently, I have been able to raise my crafting levels while steadily make back my money. I am up to 47 Arcane, 40 Divine and 43 Elemental.

I got my first ever +1 Tome! A +1 CHR tome from the chest in the locked room

Taming the Flames ELITE
The Tear of Khakaan ELITE

The Cursed Crypt
* The quest must be completed in 60 minutes
* I needed a hireling for one point. You can get by if you have a really high jump and speed boost
* I needed a minimum of 4 potions/scrolls of Invisibility and sometimes used 5
* Resist Electricity and Shield are very useful against all casters. Resist Fire is useful for when the Eternal Wizards. Resist Cold and Sonic when fighting the human casters
* I entered the quest and walked down a hallway to speak to a survivor. After talking to him, I buffed up
* I entered a big room. I went left towards the opening in the West. As I crossed the room, some Skeletons spawned
* Beyond the opening I came to a locked door. Two Spectres spawned, but they are NPC's and told me to follow them. I followed one to the West and then North and then West again, fighting Skeletons along the way. Eventually I came to the West altar
* When I got close to the altar, a bunch of Skeletons spawned including a boss Skeleton. When I killed him, I heard the sound of a door opening behind me
* A little to the West of the West altar, a hallway to the South opened up. I followed it South and then West. I got attacked by some Skeletons and some humans. I eventually took a hallway South. That took me to the Western Cloisters
* There is a chest with a Jeweled Key in either the Western or Eastern Cloisters. I recommend clearing both for the collectables and the "Rescue the 5 Silver Flame Officers" optional. There is also a loot chest in one of the cloisters.
* There are multiple doors in the Western Cloister with mobs behind most. Shield as well as Resist Cold and Sonic are wise for this area. Doors to avoid in the Western Cloister - the door East of the entrance and the door to the far West of the entrance, both on the North side. These doors have Silver Flamers behind them and if you can complete the quest without killing any Silver Flamers, you get a 40% xp bonus and an additional chest. When opening those doors, throw the switch from the side, go in Stealth mode and sneak into the room. Hopefully the room will just have a chest. I was able to sneak over to the chest and grab the key
* Once I cleared the Western Cloisters, it was time to cross the first big room and go through the gate to the Eastern Cloisters. Skeletons spawned some more in the first big room
* Once I got the Jeweled Key, it was time for a long run back to the locked gate just SW of the first big room. A battle spawned with a boss Skeleton and 2 Eternal Wizards. Fire and Electricity Resist + Shield are good for this battle. I ignored the boss Skeleton until after I killed the Eternal Wizards
* Once the boss Skeleton is dead, there is a neat effect where the Spectres rise out of the prison
* The next step is to destroy Maldetto the Vampire's two projections. One of them is behind a magic gate in the Northwest and one is behind a magic gate in the Northeast. To get to the Northwest magic gate, I went North, West, West, South, West, West, North and North. Once there, a Spectre appeared. I stepped into the Spectre and was teleported to the other side of the Magic Gate.
* This was a really hard battle and I failed here many times. The projection was in the Western end of the room with Silver Flame adherents grovelling at his feet. The challenge is to kill the vampire without killing the Silver Flame guys. Patience is really important. I buffed, chugged a potion of invisibility and turned on Sneaking and slowly snuck directly towards him. When he spoke, I stealthily retreated to the East side of the room to a pad surrounded by acid, staying between the pillars. When the projection cast a spell at me, I cast my combat buffs and waited for the projection. The projection summoned some wolves and I killed them. I waited for the projection to come near me. I hit tab to select him and then used my Lay On Hands to damage him. As I fought him, I didn't cross into the Western half of the room, so the Silver Flames didn't bother me. Sometimes, the projection will disappear/reappear into the acid and then reset back to the altar. If that happens, it is bad news - casting Invisibility again and redoing the sneak pull rarely works. Instead, you can either (1) kill all of the Silver Flames and then kill the projection or (2) try to kill the projection while the Silver Flames attack you
* When I went South out of that room, I came to a closed door to the West. The room has a bunch of humans, a Spectre and two collectables. The room is optional, but I cleared it out anyways. After that, I rested at the shrine on the West side, which is North of the room with the door of Jeweled Key behind a secret door
* I had to go the Eastern Cloisters for another identical fight. To get to the next projection, I opened the Easternmost door on the North side of the Eastern Cloisters and went down the hallway. Skeletons spawned steadily as I went and I eventually came to another altar. When I approached it, another bunch of Skeletons spawned including a boss Skeleton. After the boss Skeleton was dead, a door opened that eventually lead to another magic gate with a Spectre in front of it. Stepping into the Spectre took me into the room with the second projection, which was a fight very similar to the first
* I rested, then returned to the first big room. The Northern door was now open. I killed the skeletons in the room. The room has a ramp, a landing, another ramp and the second floor. There was a whirling blade trap on the landing and the second ramp got coated with greaase when I stepped on it. I kept moving up the ramp and made it without problem. I killed the skeletons up there
* I exited that room (there is no difference between going East or West) and came to a room with several big ramps. I went up the first and on the landing some Skeletons spawned including 2 Eternal Wizards. They were the last Eternal Wizards in the quest. This landing has three skulls that I need light
* I went right (East), up the ramp and down a hallway. When I got over the hallway that lead to the shrine, I searched for the trap box which kept the floor from collapsing on me
* I continued on to a room with lots of ugly green. Lots of green Spectres in the room as well as a trap on the North wall. Eventually, I made it to the altar on the East wall, defeated the Brimstone Guardian and activated it
* I put on my boots of Featherfalling and jumped through the green to the floor below. I went back to the entrance and activated my hireling. I went back up the ramps, but went West this time at the landing with the 3 skulls. I went up that ramp, through the door West and then South and eventually East to another room with lots of ugly green. I went all the way to the gate on the East siding, killing the green spectres, I summoned the hireling. I had the hireling throw the Western most lever while I threw the other. The Brimstone Guardian charged me and I dispatched him. I cast Exp Retreat and did the lever thing again, then sprinted over to the East side of the room and jumped over the gate. I activated the altar, dismissed the hireling, threw the lever and left the room
* I backtracked a bit and then went West. There was another trapbox to prevent the floor from collapsing. I wandered down the hallway until I eventually got to another room with lots of ugly green. This room had the usual green Spectres and skeletal archers. There were two traps, one on the Northern and Southern walls. The skeletal archers were behind the traps and would have shot at me while I tried to disarm the trap, potentially interupting me. I pulled out my bow and killed them, disarmed the trap, went to the next trap, killed the newly spawned skeletal archers, disarmed the second trap, and then went to the altar. The final Brimstone Guardian spawned and I killed him and then activated the altar
* As I headed back to the landing with the 3 skulls, there is a point were I can take stairs West instead of East. Up those stairs is a hallway that leads West to a chest. There is a trap box just beyond the stairs that prevents the floor from collapsing. When I popped the chest, some skeletons spawned
* Back at the landing with the 3 skulls, I rested up and then buffed. I equiped my sneak gear and cast Invisibility. I then jumped into the hole and then drifted to the Southeast corner. The green Spectres didn't notice me, so I snuck into the room until they noticed me, then I snuck back to the SE corner
* After I dispatched the green Spectres, Maldetto hadn't noticed me. I cast Invisibility and snuck towards him until he noticed me. I then snuck back to the SE corner. He summoned some wolves and then eventually he joined me there. I used Lay On Hands on him and kept whacking on him until he was dead
* I then ran to the altar and touched the book to stop the timer. There was a chest there. Activating the altar updgraded my Silver Flame Talisman. There is a room in the Southwest corner with a shrine and a Silver Flame. Talking to him got me another chest.

Some notes on why I failed the quest so many times:
* The vampire and its projections self-heal, so I needed to damage them a lot fast. It took me a long time to realize that I could use Lay On Hands offensively to provide a burst of damage
* I needed the right weapons. Initially, I was using a +3 Silver Shock Pick. Vampires are resistance to electrical damage, so it wasn't doing a lot of damage to the projections. When I switched to a +4 Holy Silver Rapier of Lesser Undead Bane, I was able to damage the projections a lot faster and end the battle quickly enough. The longer the fight went, the more likely a Silver Flame would get activate and join in. Once a Silver Flame joined in, everything went down hill
* I needed to use Invisibility as well as sneaking. Sneaking alone resulted in the Silver Flames being too alert
* I needed to be patient and what for the projections to come to me. If I went to the projection after it left the Silver Flames, I could easily wind up having to go too close to the Silver Flames in order to melee the projection
* Leaving the SE corner of the final room while not invisible pulled Silver Flames. Once they are pulled, it is very hard to kill Maldetto without killing them first

Once I had completed "The Cursed Crypt", I made Kaelth's Touch. I ran "The Cursed Crypt" again to upgrade my Silver Flame Nugget to a Silver Flame Pendant, which is the best item for protecting against Beholders.

I then reset my enhancements. I had changed my enhancements so that I would have a Charisma of 26 to maximize my Lay On Hands damage to the vampires. I changed my enhancements to:
Rogue Haste Boost I
Unyielding Sovereignty
Follower of the Sovereign Host
Human Adaptability Strength I
Human Improved Recovery I
Human Versatility I
Human Versatility II
Human Versatility III
Paladin Bulwark of Good I
Paladin Bulwark of Good II
Paladin Bulwark of Good III
Paladin Resistance of the Good I
Paladin Resistance of the Good II
Paladin Divine Sacrifice I
Paladin Exalted Smite I
Paladin Exalted Smite II
Paladin Extra Lay on Hands I
Paladin Extra Lay on Hands II
Paladin Extra Smite Evil I
Paladin Extra Smite Evil II
Paladin Extra Smite Evil III
Racial Toughness I
Racial Toughness II
Paladin Energy of the Templar I
Paladin Energy of the Templar II
Paladin Charisma I
Paladin Charisma II
Paladin Toughness I
Paladin Toughness II
Paladin Divine Might I
Paladin Divine Might II

Tharashk Arena HARD
* I buffed up and then wandered down a hallway, killing mobs
* After I killed the Minotaurs, I went into a small cave on the right and talked with Drow, giving him 100 plat for the password
* I continued down the hallway to the arena. When I got to Grogan the Promoter, I went to a little crevice to my left to get a collectable and then up the right stairs and around to the backside of the arena. After I defeated some Drunken Ogres, I went through an archway and talked to Urgol the Registrar. He opened a door for me
* I went down a long hallway until I got to an intersection with a door in front of me. I went right. I defeated a bunch of Trolls and eventually got the key to Ready Room One. There is a rubble close to the key for a collectable
* I retraced my steps and then went to the other side, continuing down that hallway until it ended at Ready Room One, where I killed a bunch of Trolls
* I rested at the shrine, then talked to the Gatekeeper Grotz to go into the arena. I had a bit of time to buff up before the waves of attackers started
* The four waves are: (1) Ogres and kobold shamans, (2) Minotaurs and air mephits, (3) Ogres, kobold shamans, minotaurs, and air mephits and (4) Two red boss trolls. There is a little time to heal and buff between waves
* After the two boss trolls were dead, Grogan the Promoter and a bunch of Trolls attacked. Grogan dropped a key when I killed him
* Ready Room 1 was the room in the Northeast part of the arena. Counterclock wise from there, room #2 had a chest and room #5 had a collectable
* I went out the North exit from the arena, turned right and went up to short flights of stairs to a room which I opened to get a chest
* I returned to the North exit and then went up two short flights of stairs to the locked room on the other side and got the collectable from the locked room
* I got an extra optional by going South from there to Urgol the Registrar and killing the 4 Troll Enforcers there
* I went back into the arena and got the collectable for the SE corner and then grabbed the Oath of Droaam

The Prisoner HARD
* This quest has 3 Beholders
* I went into the house and talked with Mistress Orphne to actually start the quest
* I talked to Orphne and found out that I need to find four items
* I decided to retrieve the items that are guarded by Beholders first as Beholders debuff
* I turned around, went left on to a ramp and then went left across a wooden bridge which lead to a open space. A Beholder appeared and I killed it. A chest appeared and I popped it to the the Golden Locket
* I went back to Orphne and then continued North to a stone ramp that to a open space with a ladder. When I got there, a Beholder appeared and I killed it
* I went back towards Orphne and went up some stairs to my left before I got to her. They lead to ledge with air jets. With Exp Retreat, I could get across pretty well. That took me to an area with a shrine. When I turned the corner from the shrines, a Beholder appeared and I killed him
* I buffed up. Behind the Beholder was a ladder that I jumped to. I jumped down from that landing on to a stone path and 3 Tharaak Hounds attacked me
* Up a ladder and I went towards another ladder. It disappeared and a bunch of Arcane Oozes attacked. After I killed them, the ladder reappeared and I climbed it
* Up another ladder and to a exposed pillar with air jets. Exp Retreat got me across to the chest with the Wooden Dagger
* I Featherfell from there back to Orphne and took the ramp to the first Beholder but kept going this time and then up a ladder to a maze. The maze has lots of good stuff in it, so I just followed the left wall around and explored the whole maze. When I got to a ramp that lead down into a pond, I swam across the pond. Following the left wall eventually led me to a ramp out of the maze
* I went up the ramps to the roof and then up another ramp to a building guarded by Ingstoldt, a Fire Giant. If you have a good Bluff, you can do the first conversation choice and then Bluff him. My Bluff failed and I killed him. He dropped a Silver Key
* I went in the building and was attacked by Mephits and Gargoyles. I grabbed the collectable and popped the chest for the Silver Mirror
* I returned to the maze and continued following the left wall until I got out
* I went back to where I fought the second Beholder and went up the ladder. I was attacked by a purple spider, a Quori Stalker. It did damage to my Charisma, but fortunately I have plenty
* I continued on and fought some more Quori Stalkers. I went up a couple of ladders, hit a rubble and then hit a Flowering Plant for the Memnos Blossom
* I Featherfell from there and went back to Orphne. I gave her the four items and a Shadow Orphne spawned. I killed it and was done

That took me 153 House Kundarak favor, enough to get another bank tab.

I ran quests to get all of my level 7 quests up to Elite:
Gwylan's Stand ELITE
Bargain of Blood ELITE
The Black Loch ELITE
Storm the Beachs ELITE
The Tide Turns ELITE

I ran quests to get all of my level 8 quests up to Hard:
Stromvauld's Mine HARD
Faithful Departed HARD
Stormcleave Outpost HARD
Spies in the House HARD
The Temple Outpost: Captives of the Cult HARD
The Temple Outpost: The Libram of the Six HARD

I ran all of my level 9 quests I hadn't done before:Gateway to Khyber
* For "The Jungle of Khyber" (which this is a pre-quest), you need a weapon that will bypass Lawful DR and Beholder killing gear. I also recommend a Magic Missile wand or spell
* The "Gatewaey to Khyber" is a very simple quest
* I killed some Trolls
* I killed some more Trolls
* I killed yet more Trolls
* I rested and went on to the next quest

The Jungle of Khyber
* The first half of this quest is Drow, then Beholder-only section and then
* I entered but didn't buff up
* I went North and saw the Marut on ledge ahead of me. It gave a little speech. I then buffed up
* To my right was a ramp. I went up it and killed the Drow up there. There was a collectable and sometime a chest
* I went back down the ramp and then East. I killed the Scorrow and the scorpions
* There was a lever. North of the lever was a pool. I swam down to get the colletable. It was hard to fight the right spot to swim down and hard to fight the right spot to get out
* I threw the lever and then rushed through the door as fast as I could to avoid the force trap. I killed the Drow. There is sometimes a trapped chest there, but no such luck. I disarmed the Force trap
* I threw the next lever and went through the next door. I killed the Scorrow and the two casters there
* I went through the optional door North and killed the trolls there
* I continued on to the next lever and threw it. I killed the two Scorrow, retreated back to the other side of the door and waited for the scorpions there and killed them. On the other side of the door is a shrine. I went to the foot of it and pulled out my bow to kill the Drow archers. I went back and killed another Drow archer with my bow. There was a Drow caster I couldn't get a sight on with my bow. I pulled out the Wand of Magic Missiles and killed him with that
* I went West. There were a bunch of Earth Elementals that were sleeping. I went towards the door. The Marut showed up and gave a speech, then woke up the Earth Elementals. I killed them, then the door opened and a bunch of Drow attacked. I killed them
* I went on to the next lever. I searched and disarmed the trap, then threw the lever. I went North to a T and then went left. I killed some Drow, popped the chest, killed the spawned scorpions and grabbed the collectable
* I went back to the T and across East. I went down the hallway, killing Drow. I eventually came to a T where there was a big Drow fight while the DM talked about ruins of an ancient civilization
* I went right and followed the tunnel down to a cave with a boss Drow, a chest and a collectable. I killed all the Drow and grabbed the loot
* I went back to the T and then wandered around the tunnel complex, killing Drow. In the far North of the complex is a ladder down. I killed the Drow there and grabbed the collectable. Sometimes there is a boss and a chest, but not this time
* I eventually went to the Easternmost tunnel in this section which lead to a door. To the left was a shrine, a Drow fight and a chest. The chest had the key to unlock the door to the Beholder section
* I threw the lever, went through the door, waved to the Marut and continued on to the locked door. I went through it into the Beholder section
* I went North to an intersection guarded by a Beholder. I went right and killed another Beholder. I went back to the intersection and went West up a ramp and killed a boss Beholder
* I went West a bit, pulled out my bow and killed another Beholder. I went back to intersection again and East up a ramp. To my right was the last Beholder, which I killed with my bow
* I then searched the room to find the three randomly-located Int runes. I then left the room North and exited the Beholders' domain. I jumped down into a hole and came to a waterfall
* There is an optional to the left that involves jumping across some ledges to a Drow and his Iron Golem. I missed the jump and went to the floor of the cavern. I then used the geyser to get up on top and look down into a cavern
* I ranged some and then jumped down. Once the intitial group was did, doors starting opening and releasing new groups
* I got a chest and a collectable and then I went North. There were three bosses waiting for me. I ran back and killed the boss Troll and boss Drow caster. I then went forward and killed the boss Beholder. I rested up at the shrine
* I buffed up and went forward. I talked to Veil. When I was done talking, I heard giant footsteps and then the Marut showed up. I had a +4 Greatsword of Alignment which I used to take him down

Haywire Foundry
* You will be fighting a lot of Neutral Warforged, so Holy weapons won't be of help. A lot of the Warforged have Adamantine DR
* A lot of the Warforged are casters who cast Magic Missiles
* I headed down a tunnel and eventually came to a lave lake with a path through it and some elementals. I killed them. There were some round stepping stones to the right (East) of the path that led to a lever. I threw it and ran through the open gate before it closed
* I then talked to a Warforged. He led me for a bit, I threw a lever and continued a bit further. I killed some Warforged and then talked to a stone face
* I went left (West) and came to a series of ramps that led up. There were three trap boxes, one in the middle of the pillar base, one a floor directly above the first and another a floor above the second. I eventually go to a door with a Magic Mouth next to it. I talked to Haywire, then smashed through the door
* I went left (West), then North, then East, then up some stairs and then West again on the second floor. I followed the narrow pathway to a ladder, went up and threw a switch. I then fought my way back
* Just North of the door I smashed through is a switch. I flipped it and went through the gate to an area with a shrine. There was a Magic Mouth for talking with Haywire. I smashed everything there and return to the first Magic Mouth
* I then went East. I fell through a collapsing floor and then climbed out the South face. Around the corner from there was a Warforge fight. I continued on from there and right after the DM talked about the heat, the floor collapsed on me. I was on some pipes and Featherfell down to a tunnel in the East wall. I took that to a ladder, went down that and another, went through another tunnel to a room with a chest, popped it and went down yet another tunnel, but it didn't led anywhere helpful. I retraced my steps and then jumped on pipes until I got back up to the original hallway
* That hallway led to a bigger Warforged battle with several casters. Beyond them was a locked door and a Magic Mouth. I talked with Haywire
* I smashed through a door into an immediate fight. This whole section has lots of Warforged casters. I then turned the corner East into another Warforged fight, this time with a boss. Continuing East, I came to a ramp, but there was a trap at the base. I went left and disarmed the trap box underneath the ramp, then went up the ramp
* There was a Warforged on top of some boxes that I dispatched with my bow. I then came to some Flame Jets that I ran through (Evasionis awesome). At the end of that ramp were 2 Warforged casters on top of boxes down and to my right
* The next set of Flame Jets can be disabled by going across small ramps to a switches. I continued on until I threw all of the switches and jumped across to another ramp that led to the final switch. It was trapped with two trap boxes - one right there and one around the right corner which required walking on a narrow ledge
* I went back East along the ramps and Featherfell to the SE corner where the one smashable in the room is located. I smashed it and got a Bloodstone! I was so pshyched. However, it was just a Bloodstone gem
* I Featherfell from there and went towards the entrance and killed some more Warforged. There was a lever in the West wall that I threw that let me into the shrine area. I rested there
* After resting, I took the West exit and ran down the first Magic Mouth. The way North was now open. I buffed up and headed North. I killed some Warforged and came to a T. Up on a shelf was a collectable
* I went left, killed some Warforged and came to another T. I searched there and found a shrine. I disarmed the two trap boxes on the back wall of the room. I then went across the T and looped back to the T where I started. There didn't seem to be any difference between the left and right paths and both had smashables. I went back to the shrine and rested
* I went North, killed a pack of Mithril Defenders and then talked to a Magic Mouth. I went through a gate, threw a lever and went through another gate
* This room has 6 puzzle wheels. I did what DDOwiki said. Oozes constantly spawned. I eventually got to the chest and got the key
* I buffed up and unlocked the door North. There were several Adamantine Defenders, then some Iron Golems including a boss
* I popped the chest and took the key. I talked to the Magic Mouth and was told to throw the lever. I unlocked the door
* I cast Resist Acid and Resist Fire. I put on my Jump boots and cast Exp Retreat. I then threw the lever
* East of the lever is an alcove with lava. There are pipes and such. I jumped on them and started upward. There was plenty of time and I stopped to kill the Mithral Defenders. Eventually I came to a cavern with a raised bridge and two Fire Elementals. Once there, I was safe. I killed the pursuing Mithral Defenders and then the Fire Elementals
* I crossed the bridge and went through the door. I then talked with Haywire. I took the Lightning Rod and popped the chest

Finish the Cult of the Six chain on Hard:
The Fane of the Six: Cleansing the Temple HARD
The Fane of the Six: Fall of the Prelate HARD
The Sanctum: Quench the Flames HARD
The Sanctum: Church of the Fury HARD

I tried The Spawn of Whisperdoom, took the initial part too casually and was killed. I started it again when I guildie logged on and I quit to run with him.

It this point, I am spending a lot of time on the guild. One advantage of it is that it is improving my crafting. For a while, I tried to keep the guild money, collectables and essences on another toon and move it over to this one as I needed. However, I realized "L'etat, c'est moi" and that I my attempts to keep the guild stuff separate was taking up too much time and not working. My crafting is now 56/45/48.

I completed The Spawn of Whisperdoom. I tried The Last Stand on Hard twice and failed both times. I can't kill the hordes descending on Viercha fast enougn. I tried Dreams of Insanity, but died in the final room. I need to upgrade my Silver Flame Pendant and my Beholder weapon.

I did Fathom the Depths HARD.

Being the guild crafter has done wonders for my crafting. I am up to 58/50/56. I switched out Combat Expertise for Oversized Two Weapon Fighting and I made two +4 Shocking Burst Khopeshes of Bleeding.

I continued doing level 9 quests on Hard:
The Last Stand HARD (with Larafay Do'rret)
The Claw of Vulkoor HARD
Into the Deep HARD
The Keeper's Sanctuary HARD

To support the guild, I really need to get to 50 House Cannith favor to be able to buy their favor crafting supplies. So I started Dr. Rushmore challenges. Eventually, I decided that I might be able to do the low-level Dr. Rushmore challenge on my own (Behind the Door), I didn't see any way of doing the mid-level (Moving Pictures) on m own, so I started working with a guildie to duo. I got enough experience from our runs to level up.

An ironic thing is that I spent a lot of time getting a [url=http://ddowiki.com/page/Silver_Flame_Pendant]Silver Flame Pendant[/ur] and tried several times to make a Silver Flame Talisman, but with my current enhancements and gear, neither does a thing for me.

ChallengesThis toon is solo-only for quests, but not for challenges and I think I have to have someone with me to get 5 stars and I want to get the 50 House C favor for guild crafting.

* With a guildie, I did [url=http://ddowiki.com/page/Dr._Rushmore%27s_Mansion:_Behind_the_Door] on Level 4 for the favor. We are still working on the best path for the quest
* I did Kobold Island: Kobold Chaos several times on level 12 to get a feel for the quest and got 3 stars. I basically followed this guide

Dreams of Insanity
* Boss beholders in quest. Also, an Adamantine weapon is helpful and an item that applies constant Featherfall is almost mandatory
* I don't see how I could have done the final room with Hunter of the Dead II
* Resist Fire, Resist Acid, Resist Cold are all useful
* The casters liked to cast Poison, so a Proof Against Poison item is helpful
* Invulnerablility worked fine against most of the mobs. The Ancient Iron Defenders are Piercing, the Ancient Warforged are Bludgeoning
* There is a pre-quest area - Pools of Reflection. Go North from the entrance to a Japanese-looking complex. To complete the optional, destroy all of the contructs. There are more constructs than you need for the optional. There is no shrine in this area so any resources used here won't be available in the main quest. Alternatively, you can just run straight through the middle of the buildings and up to the quest entrance
* I buffed up and went North, hit the Int rune on the right and came to a fight at a T. I could left or right and went right
* I followed the hallway around, killing groups of mobs
* Most battles are are a group with 1-2 Ancient Iron Defenders, a Tharaak Hound, 1+ Ancient Warforged, 2+ Drow. I would target the Tharaak Hound first then target the Drow and the Ancient Warforged, then switch to a +2 Adamantine Khopesh for the Ancient Iron Defenders. The Ancient Iron Defenders have a lot of hp and it takes a while to wear them down
* When I got to South of the entrance, I had a choice of ways to go. I decided to kill the optional Beholder boss. I went South and smashed through the door. Tough fight. No chest in the room, but there was a rune for the optional
* I went North and then went down the other side of the hallway, which is pretty much like the inside of the hallway
* There were no Ancient Iron Defenders on this side of the hallway until there very end
* When I got to the SE corner, there was a door that I smashed through. Big fight there including a Scorrow boss
* I want up the hallway to another door in the NE corner. Another Scorrow boss fight but this time there was a chest
* Done the hallway to another door. I smashed it and there was a boss Beholder fight. Finally, a shrine - I rested
* I did the other side, which was pretty much the same
* I put the two crests in their slots and went North. There was a brief fight before the final room
* When I entered the final room, I killed the mobs there. Then a boss Beholder and a boss Elder Beholder spawned. They were a tough fight
* I hit the rune down at floor level then climbed a ladder on the East side. I went along the ramp and along the roof West to a rune. Then the Super Mario part of the quest started. I jumped on a rafter and jumped over to another rune. I then jumped over to a ladder and climbed up it to another rune. I fell many times doing this part. In the meantime, Thraak Hounds spawn and the occasional Beholder. If I was on a rafter when a Beholder spawned, it would hit me Telekinesis and knock me off
* To get to the last two runes, I had to climb up the ladder, go to the roof on the South side and then jump over to a ladder. Then I had to jump on more rafters to reach the final two runes
* Once I hit all the runes, I Featherfell down, killed the remaining Thraak Hounds and popped the two chests

Invaders
* Some mobs have DR to Cold Iron and Good, the Thaarak Hounds have Lawful DR, and there are lots of Beholders
* I entered the quest, buffed up and went through the door. I saw a bunch of Kobolds fleeing in terror. I went right and got ambushed
* I continued South and popped the door. A nasty fight with an Elder Beholder, Thaaraks Hounds and other mobs. I think this Elder Beholder was one of the three objectives
* I went West, dived down and got the collectable. I then went South through the door into another nasty fight
* I went back to the big room and went East through the door. More mobs. I turned the corner and went throug the door North. A couple of Beholders and other mobs were waiting for me
* I hopped down and went through the door East. Mobs and then a Beholder fight. A chest could be there, but no luck
* I kept fighting North until I got to the shrine. I went inside and found many Tunnelworm Kobolds apparently hiding
* I went North and turned left at the next intersection. I went forward until I found a firewall. I then retreated back to the main hallway
* I went North and after a couple of battles, I got to the North end that had 4 Beholders. Tough fight
* I went West from there and cleared it out. I then went East. Behind the door was an boss Elder Beholder
* I went back to the shrine and rested. I buffed up and headed back to the entrance, killing mobs as I went
* I went North, cleared some mobs, cleared 3 Beholders on the bridge, continued North and then went East into the toughest fight yet
* I turned the corner and went North to fight the last boss Elder Beholder
* Once he was dead, I got the objective "Slay the demons' commander"
* I went back South and then around to where the firewall was North of the shrine. Final battle wasn't too bad

Mired in Kobolds
* I headed my way East, clearing out a village and then coming to a defensive position with Kobolds on a platform. I went on the backside and jumped up to kill them as well as the boss Kobold
* I destroyed a crystal and continued East. I came across some Kobolds and two more crystals. I killed the kobolds on the ground except for the boss, which was apparently being healed by the Kobolds up high by the crystals. I shot the crystals and they sent the Kobolds flying. I then killed the boss
* I continued East through the root wall. Some more Kobolds and some more explosive crystals
* I then went North and cleared the shrine area. I then went South and followed that valley. Eventually, I came to a Kobold camp. On the backside was two Shamans and a crystal out of my reach. I shot the crystal and the shamans went flying. Shattering the crystal freed a prisoner and a chest. I went back to the shrine and rested
* I continued East and came to a fortification with the crystal on the other side. On the right side of the fortification is a root wall that I broke. I then shot the crystal. I then killed all the Kobolds on the other side
* I continued on and came to a shrine and two crsytals in front of a magic wall. There is some Kobolds behind the magic wall and a baby Dragon
* I smashed the crstyals and then killed the Dragon and the Kobolds. I jumped over and popped the two chests. There were gold piles I could search, but the DM was telling the baby's mom was about to return so I recalled

I brought some my level 8 quests up to Elite:
The Path to Madness ELITE
The Xorian Cipher ELITE
Caverns of Korromar ELITE
The Faithful Departed ELITE
Haunted Library ELITE

Tharashk Arena ELITE
I died three times before completing. All three deaths were to the big Troll boss whose Otto's Dance worked near constantly on me and let him beat me up until I died. For the second time, I used a Summon Monster V scroll that I had found to summon a Medium Earth Elemental. It died in secs and I died shortly thereafter. Third time, I took Larafay Do'rret (Level 15 FvS) with me. She rocked and we blew throw the quest up to the Troll fight. We they came out, I killed the sidekick and while doing so, the main Troll killed Larafay. I died shortly thereafter. Fourth time, I took Quintesia Velassa (level 16 Fighter) and she didn't have any problems with the Otto's Dance. Together, we took down the two boss Trolls without too much trouble.

The Chamber of Raiyum
* There are random elements to this quest, so you want have the same experience as me. Rooms are stacked on top of each other, so the map is close to useless
* I brought the Seal of the Heavens and the Seal of the Soul from prior quests with me
* I entered at an alcove. I buffed up and then smashed through the door
* Beyond the door was the entrance chamber - a large room with a high ceiling. I had to kill all of the Gnolls and Hyenain the entrance chamber. Then a chest on the West side of the room unlocked. I opened it and got the Scorpion Crest. I placed the Scorpion Crest into the opening behind the chest
* Doors to the North and South opened. Some Clay Golems came down from the North side and I killed them. I went North and in the first room was an Eternal Guardian (boss lich) with some mobs
* After I cleared that room, I continued North and grabbed the collectable. There was a lever on the North wall which I threw and it revealed a secret door to the North and two Clay Golems
* I went into the room and up the room. The staircase had a gas trap. After I disarmed that, I threw the lever in the Eastern niche to reveal a passage way West
* I followed that passageway, grabbed the collectable and a bunch of undead mobs spawned. Eventually,another Eternal Guardian showed up. After I killed all of them, a passage West opened up
* I followed that passage West and then took some stairs North. In the next room East was 2 Skeleton Archers. When I moved towards them, the floor collapsed and I fell into the room below. There were several mummies there. Eventually I cleared the mobs, threw the two levers and went back up the same stairs. I killed the two Skeleton Archers and continued East
* Another room, another collapsing floor. This time, the mobs below were Scorpions. I killed them, went back up, killed the Skeletons up there and continued East
* I came to a room with a lever. When I went it, Sand Mephits spawned. I disarmed the trap and threw the lever. Nothing obvious happened
* I headed back West and a new passage opened up by the stairs I came up. I was low on SP and buffs, so I went back to the main hall and rested and then came back here. I went through passage. A bunch of undead spawned. I killed them and then threw a lever in a niche to open a secret door
* I went down yet more passageways, killed some mummies and threw another lever. I went through the now open door, down another passageway, killed yet more mummies, threw another lever, killed two Clay Golems and some Skeletal Archers, disarmed a trap on a staircase, killed a boss Mummy, went through another freshly-opened door and came to a room with the Djinn Mehrdad. I showed him the seal and released him. There was a chest in the room and two collectables
* The Wizard Kiing was in the room beyond. I took him down and a door slide open that revealed the Phlactery and a chest
* I got lucky and found the Wizard King first try instead of one other two bosses. I could have continued on in the quest, killing the other two bosses and eventually getting to the treasure room, but I decided it wasn't worth the time

I brought some my level 8 quests up to Elite:
Thrall of the Necromancer ELITE
The Prisoner ELITE
Stromvauld's Mine ELITE
Stormcleave Outpost ELITE
Spies in the House ELITE
The Temple Outpost: Captives of the Cult ELITE
The Temple Outpost: The Libram of the Six ELITE

Crafting is up to 74-68-78

I finished the Cult of the Six chain on Elite:
The Fane of the Six: Cleansing the Temple ELITE
The Fane of the Six: Fall of the Prelate ELITE
The Sanctum: Quench the Flames ELITE
The Sanctum: Church of the Fury ELITE

I brought the rest of my level 9 quests up to Hard:
Gateway to Khyber HARD
The Jungle of Khyber HARD
Haywire Foundry HARD

I then came to the conclusion that it was pointless to do Challenges right now. To get to 50 House C favor with just Challenges, I need to average 4.17 stars per Challenge. That isn't going to happen. So to get to 50 House C favor, I need to run the "Secrets of the Artificers" adventure pack, whose quests start at level 19. So there is no point worrying about House C favor until I get to level 19 or 20. I have at least 3 favor on all the Challenges that run up to level 15.

Delirium
* Mobs include Beholders, Xoriat Hounds (Lawful DR) and Xorian Renders (Byeshk DR)
* I came into an empty tavern. I smashed stuff and then went upstairs to see 4 Beholders at a bar. I talked to the Beholder Quixxellops and he challenged me to a drinking contest. I got up on the right side of the bar and clicked on the glassses of Xorian Cider as quickly as I could. Sometimes, it took several clicks before I could drink it. Eventually, I drank all the Beholders under the table and got a key from the bartender
* I headed towards the Guest Rooms door in the West wall when suddenly I went insane
* I went through the door and I wasn't insane anymore. I went through the first door on the left and rescured someone from Xoriat Hounds (and got two collectables)
* I went to the next door on the left and saved 2 people from a Young Beholder and Xoriat Hounds
* The next door was locked. I continued down and opened the next door. I whacked on a NPC and few times and he left me the key to the Library on the bed
* I went into the Library and killed a Young Beholder and a pack of Xoriat Hounds. I grabbed the collectables and then went over to a key on a table. I went insane and the key started running around the room. I eventually "killed" it and it transformed into a boss Xorian Render. I killed him, go the key and popped the chest
* I left the Library and the door that was previously locked was open with a Young Beholder in it. I killed him and grabbed the collectable
* I went out of the Guest Rooms and down the stairs, killing Xorian Renders as I went
* I went through the Kitchen Door, smashed all the stuff in the Kitchen, grabbed a collectable. I then talked to the Cook. I went insane and Zombies attacked us ("Hambies", which have hams for heads and "Clambies", which have clams for heads). The Cook lost all his life, but that didn't seem to matter
* The Cook gave me the key to the Meat Locker. I went in there and fought a pack of Xoriat Hounds as well as a boss Xoriat Hound. I got a chest and a collectable
* I should have shrined by now, but I was doing OK
* I went through the Basement door and all was quiet. There was a secret door at the foot of the stairs. I went through it, threw the lever and got the chest behind the stairs
* I turned a corner and fought a pack of Xorian Renders. After I killed them, I went back over there and I went insane. A floor tile puzzle popped up. After I did the puzzle, the puzzle pieces attacked me. After I killed them, the door opened
* I went into the next room and killed some Xoriat Hounds and Xoriat Renders. At this point, I should have gone back up to the first floor and used the shrine. Instead, I approached the shrine in this room and went insane
* I went back up to the Guest Rooms and went through the first door on the right. I killed a Xorian Render. I grabbed a collectable, ran through the mirror, then got another collectable and a key. I went down to the first floor and went into a cobweb covered niche North of the shrine. I searched there and found a secret door, behind which was a chest
* I missed a chest. Per DDOWiki, it was "in the stack of boxes in the room before Knizzlenak (only accessible while in madness mode, climb on top to see hole to drop into)"
* Back down to the Basement and the floor puzzle. I did the floor puzzle and then rested at the shrine
* I went through the door and found an empty room. I went further into the room and an Elder Beholder appeared. He didn't cast anti-magic so I kept my buffs. He had a TON of hp. Xorian Renders would occasionally spawn. I eventually killed him
* I popped the chest and finished

I tried The Lords of Dust and died when 2 Khyber Jarilithes. They kept knocking me down and killed me. 17 saved for knock down, 14 failed

A Cry for Help
* This quest has Rakshasas (need Good and Piercing to break DR) and Jariliths (need Good and Cold Iron to break DR)
* There is an optional area that requires a very long swim, so waterbreathing items/potions are a good idea
* It is a bit of hike to the quest with some fighting, but not bad
* I went North fighting up the hallway and then took a right at the T. That lead to room with a chest that had a key. I backtracked to the T and went West. That hallway bent around North
* I got to a small room and fought 3 Jarilths. I kited them and killing 2 of the 3 with my bow. I went back and killed a Rakshasa and open a door to kill another Rakshasa. On the other side of the room was a trapped - I had to go through the trap in order to get to the box
* I continued North into a fight. The floor there collapsed under me and I had to climb out and then continue North to the door. A little to the right of center would have been safe
* I opened the door to a room of melee mobs. I retreated to the ledge across the pit and fought them one at a time
* I continued North the doors and went and the left side of the room to avoid a trap. I continued North through the next set of doors
* That hallway bent East into a fight in a room. There is a narrow part of the hallway and I jumped over that with Feather Fall boots. In the rooms was a chest there with a key. When I returned the narrow part of the hallway, the floor collapsed and a trap went off, but the Feather Fall boots took me past most of it
* I retreated back to the next room and went through the door West. A fight in that room. I opened the door South and there was a pack of Jarilths
* I unlocked the door, disarmed the trap on the threshold and fought down the hallway. I eventually came to a wide spot with a steel floor. TRAP!!!! I went along the left edge and got blown over the trap and close to the trap box. In an earlier attempt, I had worn Featherfall boots and had gotten blown up to the blades in the ceiling and killed
* I opened the door and went the steps to a fight at the shrines. The way South is blocked by two raised bridges. I went through the door West into a tough fight. Once I cleared that, I went through the next door to a room with a switch, which I threw. I then went back to the shrines and rested. Then I did the same thing on the other side
* The lowered bridges revealed two parallel rooms with archers on catwalks. I killed them with my bow. I then jumped into the water and swam down to roughly the center of the room. I searched a found a secret floor tile which moved away to reveal a secret room with a lever. I threw the lever. I then swam West for a very long time and finally came up into a room. I killed a number of mobs, Rakshasas and a Rakshasa boss. I unlocked a chest then I swam back
* I climbed up to the catwalks and threw a lever in the SW corner of the room. A bridge fell and I cleared out the mobs in the new room and threw a lever there. I went to the other side and did the same thing
* I went South, followed the hallway West and then went through the door North. I killed the mobs there and popped the chest for the key. I backtracked to the locked door and went through
* The final battle went pretty easy. I then popped the chest to get loot and the key and unlocked the prisoner
* To not surprise, the prisoner was really a boss Rakshasa, who summoned several Rakshasas to help her. I killed them all and a secret door opened to reveal the final chest

I have enough xp to level, but I think I will continue doing quests for a while

Foundation of Discord
* I buffed up, went fighting down a winding hallway to a door. I disarmed the trap on the door and went through and fought down to another door. I went through the door to a fight in front of a shrine
* I went through the doors on the East side of the room, took the right branch and fought my way to the end where I killed a boss
* I retreated and took the left branch. I fought down to a locked door. I unlocked it and went into a fight in the room. I took a ladder to the top of the room and the South side was a secret door. I went through it to a tough fight. It was tougher than it should have been in that I hadn't noticed my resists ran out and there were a lot of casters cast elemental damage. I popped the chest and grabbed the collectable
* I went back to the shrine and through the West door. I took the right branch, fought a ways, disarmed a trap, fought some more and killed a boss. Back I went then down the left branch, past a funky undisarmable trap to another boss battle. I went back to the shrine and rested
* I buffed up and headed South. I fought along, went through a door into a dining room and killed the mobs there. I went South through the big doors
* In the middle of the room was a Aurum in a blue cube. I went to kill an Aurum and jumped up on the ledge to my right. I turned out to be a great move as 4 Elder Elementals spawned and they couldn't get me up there. I killed them with my bow. More Elementals spawned. I killed them with my bow. More Elementals spawned. I didn't see that was making any progress. I checked DDOWiki and there are 4 gongs in the room that I needed to sound. I killed the Earth and Air Elementals and then started sounding the gongs. Another Earth and Air Elemental spawned. I went up on my ledge, killed them and then did the last gong. Patrick fell down into a hole. I featherfell down to him, killed him and that stopped the Elementals
* I went through the South door, popped the chest, grabbed the colletables and finished

Feast of Famine
* In 30 minutes, the hunting party arrices. I am not sure what happens if you don't kill the final boss by then
* There is a steady stream of Orcs in the hallways
* I entered, buffed and went South. At the T, I went left, killed the mobs there and then went West
* I opened the door, went into the room and after I killed the mobs, disarmed the trap. I followed the snaking hallway, disarming a trap in the middle of the room and then left the room
* I went down a winding hallway to two doors. I went through the door on the right and entered a living area. I popped the doors there and killed mobs. At some point, I got a key. I went back to the other door and went South
* I went down another winding hallway until I eventually go to a door. I kept going straight to get the collectable. I then went back to the door and through it
* I went down the hallway to a tent. Down the ladder to the shrines. I was doing OK so I kept going
* Down the hallway to a locked door on my left. I returned to the shrines and rested, then came back here but ignored the door and kept going West
* Another locked door in front of me and another door to my right. I went through the door on the right and cleared out that living quarters. I eventually got a key. I went back to the locked door and went through it
* I went down the hallway until I got to passages off to the right and left. I cleared out those passages and then headed South again
* Through the last door to the final battle. I killed the boss and his mobs. His chest was in a tent
* I huge out for a few minutes and the hunting party arrived. 20 some Orcs arrived 1-3 at at time and I killed them
* I went way back to the locked door that I ignored. I unlocked it and went through. I fought Orcs all the way down the hallway to a boss Orc at the end. I popped his chest
* I went back to the hallway where the hunting party appeared and exited there. That took me to a special part of the wilderness area. I buffed up, killed the Orcs there and got the chest. I then recalled

I died on "Against the Demon Queen" in the final battle. I am fighting a lot of Evil Outsiders, so I am going to dump Hunter of the Dead II for Knight of the Chalice II. I reset my enhancement to:
Rogue Haste Boost I
Unyielding Sovereignty
Follower of the Sovereign Host
Human Adaptability Strength I
Human Improved Recovery I
Human Versatility I
Human Versatility II
Human Versatility III
Paladin Courage of Good I
Paladin Courage of Good II
Paladin Bulwark of Good I
Paladin Bulwark of Good II
Paladin Resistance of the Good I
Paladin Divine Sacrifice I
Paladin Divine Sacrifice II
Paladin Exalted Smite I
Paladin Exalted Smite II
Paladin Extra Lay on Hands I
Paladin Extra Lay on Hands II
Paladin Extra Smite Evil I
Paladin Extra Smite Evil II
Paladin Extra Smite Evil III
Paladin Extra Smite Evil IV
Paladin Knight of the Chalice I
Paladin Knight of the Chalice II
Racial Toughness I
Racial Toughness II
Paladin Devotion I
Paladin Energy of the Templar I
Paladin Energy of the Templar II
Paladin Charisma I
Paladin Toughness I
Paladin Toughness II
Paladin Divine Might I
Paladin Divine Might II

Stats with quests gear are 26-22-18-14-13-24

The Lords of Dust
* Mobs include Rakshasa (DR/Piercing and Good) and Khyber Jarilith (Gold Iron and/or Good)
* I came into the quest and talked with Inquisitor Gnomon. He says to slaughter everyone in the quest
* We went into the first room. The cultists chat for a bit and then attack us. We killed them and their attack dogs
* We went up stairs, killed some mobs and then Inquisitor Gnomon went through the South door and told me to go explore the other rooms
* I cleared out the next room and then went North through a door. I went West and then South, killing mobs. There was a boss god named Bastion that had a nasty Improved Trip
* I backed tracked a bit and went through the North door. I killed the mobs there and came to a room with an altar, which I purified
* I went back South and went down to a chest, which I popped. I went West and cleared out the mobs there. There was a bookcase that the DM said had marks that it had been moved. I destroyed it and found a switch. I threw the switch and a room with an altar was revealed. I killed the mobs and then purified the altar
* Back to the hallway, South up the stairs and through the door. Gnomon's novice was dying on the floor. I opened the door and killed the mobs that attacked me
* I went into the next room and cleared the mobs there, including a boss spellcaster cultist
* I smashed a bookcase, threw the switch behind it and found a shrine. I didn't need it so I continued downstairs. The hallway had three traps and eventually lead to a door to the next part of the quest. I returned to the shrine and rested
* Through the door and down a hallway. I kill a Cultist and 2 Death Knights
* Through a door, across a hallway, through another door and down some stairs to another fight
* Around the corner and through the door to the last alter. Some cultists, Death Knights and a boss Rakshasa named Tahmael. I purified the altar and popped two chests
* I opened the door East and discovered a shrine. I didn't need it yet and kept going
* I went down a winding hallway, killing mobs and disarming a trap to a door. Another hallway on the other side. I was attacked by 2 Khyber Jarilithes. I retreated to the last doorway. One Khyber Jarilith attacked me, I pertrified him and then killed him. The next one attacked me and I killed him. A Rakshasa Lord attacked me and I killed him. I disarmed and trapped in the hallway and continued on
* I continued on, disarmed a trap and came to a door. I went through. Lots of dialogue, then a bunch of Skeletons spawned and attacked me. After I killed them, the Rakshasa boss attacked me. After I killed him, the boss Drow attacked me and I killed him. I wished that I had had Proof Against Poison for the boss Drow. I popped the chest

Trial by Fire
* It was a hike down to the quest but I was able to sneak the whole way easily. No shrine by the quest
* I buffed up and went down a hallway. I killed two Trolls. I continued on and came to a locked door. I backtracked to where I killed the Trolls, went West and came to another door. I unlocked it and went through
* I went down a hallway killing spiders. They have Pierce DR and my pierce weapon sucks so I stayed with my regular weapon
* I came to a ledge that overlooked a big room. I pulled out my bow and shot a spider, but it ran away. I jumped down and killed the spiders in the room
* I went West down a hallway, killed more spiders and came to a dead end
* I went back to the main room and went North. It went East and eventually led to a locked door. I smashed it and killed the Trolls on the other side
* I had a number of choices of where to go from there. I went North, killing Trolls and spiders. I eventually came to a room of Trolls which I cleared out. In a corner of the room behind some furs was a passageway that lead to another door. I opened it and continued on. I came to a big metal locked gate that I couldn't open. I continued on to another door which I unlocked
* I entered a room with a bunch of Trolls, one of which was a boss. I retreated back a bit to where there was a narrow part in the hallway and I killed them
* I left the room and came to a ledge area. I turned right and went into a hallway. I went left into an alcove and killed a general there. I went across the hallway into another alcove and killed the mobs there. I then wandered around the area for a bit until I killed all of the generals
* I went back to the hallway with the two alcoves and continued North. Then let me back to somewhere I had been before. I kept going down until I got to a fiery lake at the bottom and popped the chest there
* Back up I went back to the hallway with the two alcoves off of it and then back to the room where I entered and then back to the big metal locked gate. I unlocked it (took me a 52) and went through to kill a boss spider and get a chest. A pack of spiders attacked me on the way out
* Back to the ledge area and then went up to a lever and a gate. I threw the lever and went through. That just led back to the entrance. I went back down to the ledge area
* I found a hallway West and went down it. I came to a ledge area with a shrine to my left. I went right into a Troll fight. I went up and down a ramp into another Troll fight. I then went back and rested
* I went up and down the ramp again to the last Troll fight. In the Northwest of that room is a crack in the floor. I buffed up and jumped down. I went down a hallway to a room with a bunch of Trolls including the final boss. I fought them in the narrow entrance to the room and killed them. I then popped the chest

The Maze of Madness
* A henchmen is needed for this quest
* It was a hike down to the quest but I was able to sneak the whole way easily. No shrine by the quest
* I buffed up and talked to the giant No-tar. I threw a switch and went through an open gate into a fight with Razor Cats and a Minotaur
* I went on past a gate to a switch. Near the gate is a trap box. I had the hireling throw it as I waited at the gate and then summoned the hireling. A little further down the hallway was a tough fight. Down a little further was a secret door on my left. Behind it was a fight with a boss Minotaur (Agent of Insanity)
* Back to the hallway and down a bit to two switches. The trapbox is to the right once I could see the swtiches. I threw the right switch, when through the open gate and killed another Agent of Insanity. Some Minotaurs spawned behind me that I killed
* Another lever to open a gate, then another pair of levers. I threw the left on and got in to a hallway. I killed a Minotaur and had another pair of levers. Left locked me into the room. I had the hireling throw it and two more gates opened. South led to two levers (trapbox next to the switches) and another lever. East led to a water filled area which had a gate in the bottom. I had the hireling throw the lever that was by itself and I swam through the now open gate
* On the other side was two switches and two gates. I threw the South one and went through the gate. I led to a short hallway and two switches (trapbox next to them). The left switch caused a gate to open in the distance
* Back to the water area and I threw the East switch. I came into a hallway that had a swtich and another switch. Mobs poured steadily into the area. After I killed them, I explored the area ahead. Lots of switches and a secret door in the Southeast corner. On the other side of the door was a fight including the last Agent of Insanity. Killing him produced a clicking sound. I popped the chest there
* I went back to the water and throw the rightmost switch. That opened a hallway that had a shrine behind a gate,some mobs to the North and a set of three switches. The left switch opened the shrine gate. I couldn't open the gate to the North
* I went back to secret room and then hugged the South wall led to two switches (1 trapbox to their left and 2 trapboxes on the pillar to the right of the gate). The right switch opened the gate. That led to a hallway with two switches. I threw the far switch and came to a room with two switches and a ramp up. The left switch opened the gate. I went back to the shrine and rested
* I was blocked by another gate. I had the hireling throw the last switch I threw to gate past the gate. Another pair of switches which I ignored and went up the ramp, across a bridge and killed a Minotaur. Another pair of switches and a gate, which the left one opened. I went along some bridges ignoring the switches along the way to a ramp down just North of the shrine. There was a fight at the end of the ramp. I went North and killed Malian the Mad and then popped his chest
* I backtracked a bit until I saw beneath me a room with a chest. I Featherfell into it, killed the mage there, popped his chest and finished

Against the Demon Queen
* This quest requires a hireling to throw a lever for you. I used Quintesia Velassa
* There is a section that requires a long time under water, so an Underwater Action item is advised
* This room has 6 tunnels that have to be accessed in a specific order. What that order is is somewhat random. See this page for more
* A hike to get to the quest entrance. I killed everything to the entrance, shrined up then entered
* I read a book which gave a riddle. The words in bold were GRASPING, MOCKERY, NIGHT, DEVIOUS, POISONER and HUNGRY. Per the above page, I need to the tunnels in the following order: Octopus, Bat, Scorpion, Snake, Monkey, Wolf
* I buffed up and went up a stair towards 2 Efreet. 2 more Efreet popped up on the way. I killed them all and then continued up the stairs
* I got up to the central platfrom and took the first bridge to my left. I went through the Northeast tunnel into the Octopus area. Down the hallway to some water. I swam East until I got to a room. I swam down on the North edge, swam through a crack and found a lever, which I threw. That opened the gate to the South. I swam in and the gate shut behind me. I swam around looking up and found a lever, which I threw that opened the gate to the East. I swam East and went I entered the room, blade traps started swinging. I swam to on top of the pillar in the center of the room and disarmed the trap box there. I grabbed an Iron Key than swam up and North to a locked door. I opened it, threw the lever, then swam back South. I stopped across from the unopened gate to the West and searched for a secret door in the floor. I found it, went through it and popped a chest. I then swam South through the blade trap room and through the now open gate. I swam down the hallway and eventually came to a room with the demon runes. Two Mindflayers popped up. I killed them, touched the runes and killed the boss Rashaka. Back to the middle
* I went through the Southeast tunnel into the Bat area. Down a hallway, fighting Mephits along the way. The center of rooms had sonic traps. When I got to a larger room, there were traps in the middles with boxes on the side. When I disarmed the traps, Mephits spawned. Down to the last room and touched the demon runes and the boss Rashaka popped up again. Back to the middle
* I went through the Northwest Tunnel into the Scorpion area. I fought down a hallway until I came to a room. I hugged the left wall and the floor collapsed. I shot the scorpions below me for a while and then I went down and killed them. I couldn't figure out how to get to the chest on the far side. A gate opened and I went through it. I went down the hallway to a poison trap with boxes on the other side. When I went to disarm the boxes, scorpions popped up. I killed them and disarmed the traps. A little further was another poison trap with boxes on the other side. I came to a room with the demon runs. When I entered the room, Scrorrow and scorpions popped up. I killed them. I then touched the demons runes and a boss Rashaka popped up. I killed him and returned to the middle
* I went due West to Snake. I killed lots of Trogs and got to the final room. I touched the runes and killed the boss Rashaka. Back to the middle
* I should have gone to Monkey next, but to get max xp I went due Southwest to Wolf. I killed Thaarak Hounds, then Gnolls, then more Thaarak Hounds, then more Gnolls, then a final battle of Gnolls and Thaarak Hounds. I clicked the demon runes there. I was teleported into a room with 3 undead bosses and some undead archers. I killed them, threw a lever and climbed out of the room
* The next area is Monkey and I need the hireling for it, so I went back to the quest entrance and summoned Quintesia. I took the bridge due East to go to Monkey. I went down the hallway and killed some Wildmen. I came to a room and their were Wildman Mystics up on platforms. I hopped up some blocks and went North. I hopped up some more and killed the ones in the North room. I went to the East wall, searched for the secret door, went through it to a chest. I went back to the earlier room and killed the Wildman Mystics up on platforms. I then went back North and then jumped over the to West wall and parked Quintesia there. I clicked on the switch and then went to the South side. I had Quintesia throw the switch. went throw the gate, summoned her and killed yet more Wildman Mystics up on platforms. Again, I parked Quintesia at the switch and her throw it when I was at the next gate. I went it and some Wildmen popped up. I killed them, touched the runes and killed the boss Rashaka. Back to the middle
* I went Southwest to Wolf again. The hallway was empty but the final battle respawned. I touched the runes and killed the boss Rashaka. Back to the middle
* I went South up the stairs and shrined, then buffed. I went through the door, killed some Efreets, then some Cacodemons, some Efreets, some Pyrodemons and then came to the Lailat
* I smashed all the stuff, checked my buffs and talked to Lailat. The mobs around her activated and I killed them easily. She activated and then I had a very tough fight. She kicked knock down a ton of my hp easily but no so much with Quintesia. I fought and healed for a while, but eventually used up all of my LoH and Unyielding Sovereignity. I tried running around and healing, but she was hitting me for more damage than I was healing. She eventually killed me. However, Quintesia eventually took her down
* I had Quintesia grab my soulstone and then I guided her to the rez shrine where I rezzed. We went back to the fight and came to a teleport circle. We teleported over to where the chest was a Lailat respawned. I was smarter this time and let Quintesia fight the whole fight. I just kept her healed. Quintesia took Lailat down and I got the real chest

I swapped out Oversized Two Weapon Fighting for Least Dragonmark of Making. I am close to 90 crafting levels and the 3 level bump would open some nice recipes for me.

Servants of the Overlord
* I buffed up and went down a hallway. A Rakshasa and a Drow Priestess had a little chat while I watched. I killed the Rakshasa and then I killed the Drow Priestess and her summons. I then activated the Silver Flame Ward to drop the barrier
* I went into the next cavern. There was a locked door and a Silver Flame Ward. I hopped across the lava to one lever. I went up from there to get a collectable and the other lever. I Featherfell across the lava to the now open door. There was a shrine there and down aways a chest. Unfortunately, the chest was DC60, which is way above my ability to open. I climbed down the ladder and jumped into the lava. Nothing down there
* I went back out and activated the Silver Flame Ward and entered an alcove. I went up but there was nothing there. I jumped down into the hole and saw a Rakshasa who threw up a magic barrier. He then summoned some Khyber Reavers which I killed. I then killed the Rakshasa and his Khyber Hellhound
* I went down the hallway until it was blocked by a spiderweb. Some spiders popped up and when I had killed them, the spiderweb fell away. Down the hallway were 4 Drow. Further down the hallway was a Drow Priestess and some spiders
* I came to a hole and I dropped down to a shrine and rested. A little further on was another hole. I buffed up and dropped down. A Rakshasa and his Khyber Hellhound were waiting for me. I continued on, activated a Silver Flame Ward and came to a four way intersection - to me right was a door, to my left was a magic barrier with two crest slots and ahead of me was a hallway
* I went straight and came to an area with a narrow path over jagged rocks. I went left (West) and went down a hallway to a spider ambush. I continued on to a hallway filled with lava and the occasinal Khyber Reaver. I grabbed a collectable and eventually came to a Khyber Lavapit Reaver boss. I defeated him and popped his chest. Apparently this fork was an optional. I went back to where I had gone left and went right (North) and found a collectable
* I went back to the four way intersection, opened the door and went through. That led me to another four way intersection. To my left, I could see a Rakshasa in front of a Silver Flame Ward. I killed him and his Khyber Hellhounds and then activated the Silver Flame Ward. Beyond it was a comfortable nook for apparently a Silver Flame priest. I continued down from there and grabbed two collectables. Otherwise, a dead end
* I went back to the second four way intersection and I went North down a hallway. I fought two Khyber Reavers playing in fire pits. That led me to a split where the DM said, "The passageway is eerily quiet". I went left down a hallway and fought a Khyber Hezrou. Beyond him was a Silver Flame Ward. I activated it, climbed up a ladder and got the first crest
* Back to the eerily quite split and I went to the other fork. I jumped down a hole and fought a Khyber Hezrou. Beyond him was a Silver Flame Ward. I activated it and got the second crest
* I went back to the second four way intersection and went West through the archway. Down a hallway was a Page from Brother Aurelius' Journal and a Resurrection shrine
* I went back to the first four way intersection, put the crests in the slot and went on. I came to an archway that jumped to me left and climbed over. There was a switch with some Drow beyond it. Khyber Reavers keep spawning every time I tried to throw the switch. I hit one with a Greater Petrify Runestone and got the switch thrown. A very, very tough fight followed. I ran away, healed up and then fought some more many times. Eventually, I got them all and came back to the nook beyond the switch. There was a chest and nothing more. I guess this was an optional battle
* I continued on and came to hole. Above the hole was a collectable that required jumping up on mushrooms. I jumped down into the hole, hugged the left wall and came to an alcove with shrines. I rested (which I badly needed)
* Beyond that was a spider ambush then another hole. I jumped down into the hole. A Rakshasa and a Khyber Reaver were waiting for me. Further down was another Rakshasa. I grabbed a collectable, threw a switch, grabbed more collectable and then jumped into a hole
* Down the hallway to a Silver Flame Ward. I went a little to the left and was attacked by two Khyber Hellhounds. As I looked around, anothe pair spawned. I killed them and activated the Silver Flame Ward
* I went down the hallway and came to a cavern. A Drow Priestess and two Rakshasas chatted for a bit, then I killed them all. The floor collapsed at some point. I jumped down. There were shrines there. Beyond them was a switch and a barrier. I rested, buffed and then threw the switch
* I entered a large cavern. I talked with a Drow Priestess there. She cast a magic barrier on herself and then waves of mobs started attacking. They were tough, but the Khyber Jarilith Guards hurt me bad. I eventually go to a boss Hezrou and then the boss Drow Priestess
* I went Northwest from there and popped a chest. I talked to Brother Aurelius who told me the backstory for the next quest. I could have entered the next quest but I instead hit Finish

The Spinner of Shadows
* I buffed up and wandered down a cave. I came to a Rakshasa Lord and two Drow arguing. I killed them. I continued down the hall into another fight. I eventually rescued a Silver Flame Guardian. I talked to the Silver Flame Guardian who told me what I needed to do
* I then teleported into a huge cavern. The Spinner of Shadows gave a little speech and then was driven away by the Silver Flame
* To the West is a maze area and to the East is a lava area. Both have blue Flame Eaters running around. I need to kill lots of them and pick up their wards shards. I need 36 total ward shards to reseal the Spinner of Shadows
* I went West and started killing blue Flame Eaters. When the Spinner of Shadows showed up, I ran back to the Silver Flame and fought her that. Eventually she ran away and I went East to kill more Spiders. She appeared again, I ran back to the Silver Flame and fought her there until she ran away
* After that, she summoned a bunch of red spiders to kill the Silver Flame. I killed them. I then went back West to kill more spiders. She showed up and I ran back to the Silver Flame. I was out of healing and she killed me
* My stone appeared outside the barrier next to the shrines. I rezzed and rested. I hung out next to the Silver Flame Guardian until I was fully healed. Then I talked to the Silver Flame Guardian and went back to it
* More of the same. This time, I hung out in the middle of the Silver Flame Guardian. Its constant heals helped tremendously. Spiders would periodically pop up and I killed them. Spinner of Shadows would fight me for a bit, turn blue and run away. I dragged the ward shards to my toolbar to monitor how many I had. When I got close and Spinner was running around blue, I charged off and killed enough Flame Eaters to get enough ward shards to light all the wards. I ignore Spinner and did that
* Cut scene time. The cut scene set up the story for the expansion
* After the cut scene, I was teleported back out of the cavern and popped the two chests

In "The Spinner of Shadows", I got a Templar's Retribution. It is a really nice weapon. I have found only one Cold Iron weapon and I made it into a +3 Holy Code Iron Sickle of Pure Good. So I am thinking of swapping out the Least Dragonmark of Making for Exotic Weapon Bastard Sword.

Acid Wit
* I entered the quest and buffed up. I went down the hallway and fought some bats. Later, I fought Trogs and modified Earth Elementals. Having a high AC seemed to help reduce damage
* I went right at the T and then hugged the right wall. I fought along until I came to a shrine. North of the shrine was a closed door
* I went back to the first T and went West to a door. I popped it and went through. More Trogs and modified Earth Elementals. I eventually got to the end and killed a boss modified Earth Elemental
* I headed back towards the shrine and took a left a little South of the shrine to explore a hallway. More Trogs and modified Earth Elementals. I went North past the shrine to the door and popped it. I tough fight ensued. I went back to the shrine and rested, then buffed up again and headed on
* I fought some bats and eventually I came to a big group of Trogs in front of three doors. I went North to examine the door. I then retreated back to the East door and opened it. I went down to a T and fought some Trogs there. I went right at the T and fought me way to a door. I went through it and came to a shrine. I went through the next door into a Trog fight. I moved upwards and went through another door. More Trogs and finally a lever which I threw
* I went back to the T and then North. I had a fight with more Trogs and one modified Earth Elemental. I continued fighting and came to a door. On the other side was a hatchery. I killed the Trogs and then destroyed the eggs. I take a ramp up up to a door and went through it. Another Trog fight and I threw the lever there
* I went back to the area with three doors and went through the West door. I got to a fight and a T. I went North to a door and went through it. I had to jump over some lava and got to some shrines where I rested. I buffed up and went through a door West. I fought some more Trogs, went up a some rocks to a door and went through it. Another fight and another lever
* I retraced me steps to the last T and went South. There were some acid pools to jump over and acid jets to avoid. I came to another fight and I killed the last Acidstone Elemental. Another door, another Trog fight, another door, another Trog fight and another lever. This area had a chest too
* I went back to the area with 3 doors and went through the now open North door. I rested at the shrine and then buffed up. I came to an overlook of a large cavern with lots of mobs in it. I fought them on the way down and finally confronted the final boss. I couldn't do enough damage to kill him. Instead, I killed all the other mobs in the cavern. Once it was just the final boss, I could slowly hack away at his life and I eventually killed him
* No chest. I threw a lever in front of the door in the North wall and went through. 3 chests were at the end. I started popping them and I heard the sounds of more Trogs coming. I fought 29 more in a tough fight. I couldn't find the last Trog. I searched around and found a collectable in a niche little cave about hallway between the shrines and the cavern floor - I had to jump and pull up to get to it. I eventually gave up and Finished

For a break from new quests, I did my level 10 quests on Hard:
Reclamation HARD
Hiding in Plain Sight HARD
Sykros' Jewel HARD
The Chamber of Rahmat HARD

Tempest's Spine
* I thought I would die quickly but the test run went pretty well
* The quest has an Int 18 rune and 20 Str lever
* The quest has a Beholder and lots of Drow casters who cast Death spells. Deathblock is highly recommended
* The quest starts in a large wilderness area and I need to find the entrance to the tunnels underneath the mountain
* I entered an area with lots of fire elemetnals in the distance. I cast Resist Fire and then moved to my right, following the edge of the lava lake. I went up and then back to get to a pass to the East. I went down from there to another lava lake
* I went along the East side of this lava lake past the second pillar and then I turned right and went up a ramp to a bridge. I killed a Fire Reaver on it. I went East from there to another lava lake and then I went to the right and up to get to one end of a bridge. I crossed the bridge and entered the Main Entrance
* I buffed up a little (Drow cast a lot of debuffs), changed to Fearsome armor and went down a hallway to a fight. I eventually came to a bunch of spinning blads, which I disarmed. I continued on into a very tough fight. That brought me to a T
* I went left and killed a Scorrow. I cast Resist Fire and Cold, put on my Life Shild armor, activated the Int rune and went through the gate. I killed an Iron Golem, then a Fire Reaver, then a Ice Flenser
* I went through the portal and came to the Lair of Fire and Ice. I went down the hallway to a four way intersection. I went straight to the fire area. I came to another four way intersection. Two Fire Giants attacked me. I went straight and came to an area with Fire Mephits and a boss Fire Reaver. I killed all of the Fire Mephits and wounded the boss Fire Reaver. I then left the area, killing some Fire Giants on the way out. I made sure the Fire Reaver was following me. I went back to the four way intersection and headed West to the Cold area. I ran into a Giant Soothsayer, killed him, kept going straight until I saw some Mephits of Rasia. I started killing them and eventually noticed a boss Ice Flenser. I kill him and then quickly killed the boss Fire Reaver (I had 30 seconds to do so). I returned to the four way hallway, resting at the shrine along the way and the barrier was done. I popped the chest and grabbed the rune. I then exited the lair the way I came in
* I can go either North or South at this point. I went North, dropped down a hole and then went outside. I went left to Entrace #2. I cast Resist Fire and went in. I went North, killing Fire Elementals and Fire Mephits. I came to some fire jets, got passed them and then switched to my Fearsome armor
* I came to some Drow and a door. I quickly killed the Drow (the mobs inside will move to the door if I take too long) and popped the door and went into a really tough fight. Lots of Drow casters, Drow fighters and some Scorrow
* After the fight, I popped the chest. On the East end of the cavern was a door and some shrines. Stairs went down from there. I went down the stairs. There was a boss Drow Wizard and a chest. There was a portal there and I went through it to the Flooded Tunnel area
* I came into the area and killed a Scorrow. A little further on I killed a Clay Golem. I hopped up some giant stairs and came to a hallway with another Clay Golem and a Scorrow. I found a chest up there. I hopped back down the stairs
* I search around and found nothing. I jumped into some water and started swimming. I came to a T, swam right, came out of the water, went down a hallway and found a chest. I jumped back into the water, swam to the other side and came out of the water. I killed another Clay Golem. I came to another water hole and jumped in. I came to another T, went left and came out of the water. I eventually came to a large cavern. Below me, I could see Drow and Scorrow. I started shooting with bow. Some started attacking me and others opened two gates. I killed lots of Drow, some Scorrow and 2 Thaarak Hounds
* Once the fight was over, I went left, killed a Clay Golem and popped a chest. I crossed the cavern and fought a Beholder. Once it was dead, a barrier dropped allowing me access to a shrine, chest and a rune. I then swam and ran back to the door I hadn't gone through
* I went through the door, saw a Drow and he turned on poison traps. I disabled them and kept going. I fought another Drow and 2 Scorrow. I came to a lever that had a trap on either side. I disarmed them and threw the lever, opening the gate to Outdoor Exit #3. There wasn't anything to see from that exit. I could have jumped and Featherfell to the right from there, but I went back inside instead. I went pass the lever to a locked door. I unlocked it and went through. I killed a Giant Soothsayer and two Drow. I unlocked the next door and went through. I fought several Drow and Giants. I went left down a hallway to a gate and a lever
* I threw the lever, killed a Fire Giant, then two Scorrow and then a variety of Rust Monsters. There was a shrine here, but I didn't need it. I headed South out of the room and came to a gate with a lever. That goes to the final boss. I kept on to a door that opened to reveal a portal. I went through
* I went down a hallway to a bridge. I disarmed the trap (the box was on the East side of the bridge near the intersection) and threw the levers to drop the other end of the bridge
* I went down a hallway, killed some Drow and some Skeleton Archers, then came to a passageway with 5 closed doors. As I continued on, they opened and I was mobbed by Drow and Scorrows. After I killed them, the gate South opened
* I came went left and found nothing. I went back and then went straight and came to a hole in the floor and a shrine. I went down the hole and defeated an Iron Golem and a Drow. More Drow and Iron Golems. I came to the final room, fought some Giants and then a Marut. The room had a chest and a rune. I back up to the last shrine and rested. I then went to the unopened gate, threw the lever and went through
* I came to a hole, jumped down and killed a Beholder. A portal appeared. I buffed up and went through it
* I was on top of the mountain with a boss Giant and a large puzzle. I did the puzzle counterclockwise (it was easy). Once the puzzle was done, I put the runes into the 3 vases. I then started whacking on the boss Giant. I got his life down pretty low then he hurled me off the mountain. I switched to my Featherfalling boots, came down and went up again
* The boss Giant had his full health. Second round, I tried to stay close to the wall. I noticed that the puzzle wasn't completed and assumed that it didn't matter. I did pretty well for a while, some how got away from the wall, started getting blown off, tried valiantly to make it back to the wall but I kept moving closer to the edge and got blown off. I featherfell downed and went back up
* Third round, I redid the puzzle - it didn't seem to make any difference. I fought again along the wall. I found a really good spot - against the wall where the stairs go down. It makes a tight V that I couldn't be blown out of. I noticed that as I go the boss Giant's life low, I started getting thrown high into the air a lot. I used my bow when the boss Giant went away from me and used my Khopesh when he was close. When he was almost out of life, he climbed the stairs and was just out of my melee range. I gambled, went up the stairs and killed him

I decided to bring all of my level 9 quests up to Elite. I reset my enhancements to get Hunter of the Dead II:
The Church and the Cult ELITE
The Keeper's Sancturay ELITE
Gateway to Khyber ELITE
The Jungle of Khyber ELITE

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